Orange Coast College

Baseball: Pirates grind out 2-1 win over Irvine Valley

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

COSTA MESA -- Another dominating performance from sophomore righty Brett Wallach enabled the Orange Coast College baseball to pull out a 2-1 Orange Empire Conference win over visiting Irvine Valley on Tuesday at Wendell Pickens Field.

Wallach (5-1), who blanked the Lasers through eight innings back on March 7, was nearly as impressive on Tuesday, holding IVC to just one run on three hits over eight innings, walking three, striking out five and lowering his ERA to 2.57.

Lasers righty Gary Gerhardt (4-4) was just as impressive, going in the distance and taking a hard-luck loss. He allowed just two runs on 11 hits, walking one and striking out three.

OCC (25-9, 13-3) maintains its lead atop the Orange Empire Conference with the win, regardless of how anyone else did on Tuesday.

Sophomore leadoff hitter Ryan Sheeks got the Coast offense going in the first inning, ripping a shot over the left-field fence to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

That lead lasted until the fourth when IVC (19-15, 8-8) tied things up with an RBI single to center by Sean Williams, scoring Steven Bayko, who opened the inning with a walk.

From there, it was a battle of pitchers, with Wallach and Gerhardt filling up the scoreboard with zeros.

After failing on several occasions to take the lead, the Pirates finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth. Drew Hillman and Brett Wallach singled with one out and after a flyout, Beck Wheeler came through with a two-out, RBI single to right, scoring Hillman.

Chris Licon came in the ninth and retired the Lasers in order for his second save of the season.

Sheeks, Wheeler and D.J. Arellano each had two hits for the Pirates. Kory Burkhart, Williams and Connor Rhoads each had hits for the Lasers.

The Pirates and Lasers will go at it again on Thursday at IVC, beginning at 2 p.m. OCC's next home game will be on Saturday against Fullerton, beginning at noon.