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Baseball: Pirates grind out 4-0 win over Irvine Valley
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Thursday, April 30, 2009
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COSTA MESA -- Another remarkable performance from sophomore Brett Wallach sparked the Orange Coast College baseball team to a much-needed 4-0 Orange Empire Conference win over visiting Irvine Valley on Thursday.
The win keeps the Pirates (29-12, 17-6 in OEC) in a first-place tie with Santa Ana (32-10, 17-6) as both teams head into the final day of OEC play on Friday. SAC topped Riverside, 9-5, on Thursday. The Pirates will play at Saddleback, while the Dons travel to Cypress to take on the third-place Chargers. Both games will begin at 2 p.m.
In Thursday's win, the story of the day was Wallach (7-1), who threw seven shutout innings, allowing six hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. Chris Licon blanked the Lasers (21-20, 10-13) for the final two innings to record his third save of the year.
Wallach helped his own cause at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, while teammates Beck Wheeler (3-for-4, one RBI), Scott Stidham, 1-for-3, RBI), D.J. Arellano (1-for-3, RBI) and Rick Stokes (2-for-3, one run) provided enough support for the win.
Stidham helped give the Pirates the lead for good with a one-out, RBI single to center, scoring Wallach in the bottom of the fourth inning.
In the seventh, a clutch, two-out, RBI single to center from Arellano, drove in Ricky Stokes, who doubled with one out, giving Coast a 2-0 advantage.
The lead doubled in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to a one-out triple by Hillman, an RBI single by Wallach and an RBI single by Wheeler.
The loss snaps a three-game home losing streak by the Pirates.
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