Orange Coast College

Baseball: Pirates leave Chargers green, 10-2

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

COSTA MESA -- It was another impressive installment of "The Brett Wallach Show" on Tuesday as the Orange Coast College baseball team routed visiting Cypress 10-2 on Tuesday in Orange Empire Conference action.

The sophomore righty threw seven strong innings with a career-high 11 strikeouts to earn the win. At the plate, Wallach was equally impressive, going 2-for-4 with one run scored and three RBI as the Pirates (15-7, 6-2 in OEC) wrapped up their sixth straight conference win after starting 0-2.

Other standout offensive performances for the Pirates came from Mykal Stokes (2-for-4, three runs, two RBI, Ryan Sheeks (2-for-3, two runs, one RBI) and D.J. Arellano (2-for-4, one run, one RBI).

Wearing green St. Patrick's Day OCC hats, Wallach and the rest of the Pirates were about to throw them all in the dumpster on the game's first pitch as Christian Ramirez deposited the first pitch over the right-field fence for a 1-0 Cypress lead.

But OCC answered back in the bottom of the first with a little help from the Chargers' shaky defense. A single, walk, misplayed fielder's choice and a throwing error from the Cypress rightfielder helped put the Pirates ahead, 3-1.

In the bottom of the fourth, Scott Hong led off with a walk, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Dunn and scored on an RBI single to center by Arellano, giving OCC a 4-1 lead.

Cypress (17-7, 6-2) got as close as 4-2 in the top of the seventh, but Coast would respond in the seventh with two runs and the eighth with four runs to blow the game open.

Wallach's second RBI of the game came in the seventh and was followed with an RBI grounder by Beck Wheeler for a 6-2 OCC advantage.

In the eighth, an RBI fielder's choice by Sheeks and a two-run single by Stokes was followed by an RBI single by Wallach to cap off the scoring.

Coming in with a team batting average of .360, the Chargers were limited in their success at the plate, thanks to the performance of Wallach, who allowed just five hits and one earned run, walking three. Reliever Brett Williams allowed just one hit over the final two innings to close things out.

OCC returns to action on Thursday at Cypress (2 p.m.) and at Saddleback on Saturday (noon) before returning to Wendell Pickens Field on Tuesday against the Gauchos (2 p.m.).