Orange Coast College

Baseball: Licon, Hong lift Pirates into Super Regional!

Saturday, May 09, 2009

COSTA MESA -- The right arm of Chris Licon and one big swing from Scott Hong helped lift the Orange Coast College baseball team past Ventura, 1-0 in 10 innings to win the first round of the 2009 Southern California Regional Playoffs on Saturday at OCC's Wendell Pickens Field.

With the win, second-seeded OCC (31-13) will host next week's Southern California Super Regional Playoffs, which begin on Friday at noon. The Pirates will play Friday's second game, which will begin at 4 p.m. against an opponent to be determined.

Licon (8-2, pictured left) saved Saturday's performance as his best of the season, throwing 9 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball. The sophomore righty allowed seven hits, walked one and struck out eight in a dominating performance.

Matching Licon pitch for pitch was sophomore Garrett Rau. Pitching on just three days rest, Rau (6-5) threw a 10-inning complete game, allowing just one run on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

In fact, Rau's one mistake proved to be the game-winner as Hong (pictured below) deposited a waist-high fastball over the left-field wall in the top of the 10th for the lone run of the game.

That was enough for Coast as Licon retired the first two batters in the bottom of the 10th, allowed a single to Collin LaVoie, then turned things over to closer Brett Williams, who retired the next batter to earn his fifth save of the season.

Mykal Stokes and Brett Wallach each went 2-for-4 for OCC's lone multi-hit producers. For Ventura (27-18), Blair Walters went 2-for-4 for VC's lone hitter with more than one hit.

Saturday's 10-inning game was the first extra-inning contest of the season for Orange Coast.

2009 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL PLAYOFFS

(1) Palomar vs. (17) Citrus
Palomar 10, Citrus 2
Palomar 5, Citrus 2 (Palomar advances)

(2) Orange Coast vs. (15) Ventura
Orange Coast 15, Ventura 1
Orange Coast 1, Ventura 0 (10) (OCC Advances)

(3) Cuesta vs. (14) Mt. San Antonio
Cuesta 4, Mt. San Antonio 3
Mt. San Antonio 5, Cuesta 1 (series tied)

(4) Cypress vs. (13) Allan Hancock
Cypress 10, Allan Hancock 3
Cypress 11, Allan Hancock 3 (Cypress advances)

(5) Santa Ana vs. (12) Southwestern
Santa Ana 6, Southwestern 5
Santa Ana 12, Southwestern 2 (Santa Ana advances)

(6) Long Beach vs. (11) Grossmont
Long Beach 6, Grossmont 4
Long Beach 10, Grossmont 8 (10) (Long Beach advances)

(7) Mt. San Jacinto vs. (10) Cerritos
Mt. San Jacinto 13, Cerritos 7
Cerritos 8, Mt. San Jacinto 7 (Series tied)

(8) College of the Canyons vs. (9) Saddleback
Saddleback 12, College of the Canyons 10
College of the Canyons 8, Saddleback 6 (Series tied)