Orange Coast College

Baseball: Pirates overcome early deficit to top Chaffey

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- With the Orange Empire Conference just on the horizon, the Orange Coast College baseball team is picking a good time to play solid baseball.

The Pirates notched their fifth straight win and their seventh in their past eight games with a 12-9 nonconference victory over Chaffey College on Tuesday.

With over 20 players seeing action, the offense was spread up and down the Pirates' order. Catcher Josh Berryhill went 1-for-2 including a two-run home run with a run scored and three RBI for Coast (9-5), while Corey Schultz added two hits and two RBI.

OCC jumped out to an early 4-1 lead before Chaffey (5-5) used a seven-run third inning to take an 8-4 advantage. The Pirates responded with a pair of runs in the fourth and a pair of three-run frames in the seventh and ninth innings to pull the game out.

In the ninth with the score tied at nine, OCC untied things when Mykal Stokes came through with a one-out RBI single, scoring Beck Wheeler, who opened the inning with a walk. An RBI groundout by Brett Wallach was followed by an RBI single by Scott Stidham to give Coast the lead for good.

Freshman righty Andy Abrams pitched the final three innings to pick up the win, his first of the season. He allowed just one run on two hits with no walks and three strikeouts.

OCC's season goes into overdrive with the start of Orange Empire Conference play on Thursday at Cypress, beginning at 2 p.m. From there, the Pirates will play on Saturday at home against Saddleback, beginning at noon.