Orange Coast College

Baseball: Pirates wrap up perfect March with 12th straight win

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

SANTA ANA -- The Orange Coast College baseball team has brought new meaning to the term, "March Madness".

With Tuesday's 17-4 Orange Empire Conference win over the Santa Ana Dons, the Pirates wrapped up a perfect March with their 12th consecutive win, with all 12 wins coming in the always-tough OEC.

Much like Saturday's 21-13 win over Riverside, the Pirates (21-7, 12-2 in OEC) fell behind early, turned on the jets in the middle innings and cruised to victory.

Against the second-place Dons (20-8, 9-5), the Pirates fell behind 4-0 in the first two innings, only to watch the offense answer with five runs in the third, six runs in the fourth, a run in the fifth and five more runs in the ninth, pounding out 18 hits along the way.

Over the past two games, OCC has scored 38 runs on 40 hits, batting through the entire lineup in an inning six different times. During the Pirates' 12-game win streak, they have outscored the competition 113-42.

The Pirates grabbed hold of the lead for good against the Dons in the third, thanks to an RBI single by Drew Hillman (3-for-6, three runs, five RBI) and a pair of two-run singles by Scott Hong (4-for-5, three runs, two RBI) and Ryan Dunn (2-for-4, three RBI).

Other key contributors to the Coast offense included Ryan Sheeks (3-for-5, four runs scored) and Brett Wallach (4-for-5, two runs).

Wallach's main contribution to Tuesday's game came on the mound. After a shaky first couple of innings, the Long Beach State-bound sophomore settled down and threw eight strong innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits, walking five and striking out 10. He held the heart of the Dons' lineup -- Christopher Miller, Jake Eccles and Derek Eligio -- to a combined 0-for-9 with seven strikeouts. Chris Licon added another strikeout to that total after the retired the side in order in the top of the ninth to close things out.

With the win, the Pirates maintain a two-game edge on Cypress and are now three games ahead of Santa Ana for first place in the OEC standings.

OCC will return to Wendell Pickens Field on Thursday against Santa Ana, beginning at 2 p.m.