Orange Coast College

Baseball: Pirates clobber Cypress; will face Mt. San Jacinto in title game

Saturday, May 16, 2009

COSTA MESA -- For eight of Orange Coast College's nine innings of play on Saturday, the Pirates were held to just one run on three hits.

Fortunately for the Pirates, that "other" inning, the fifth inning, produced 10 runs as Coast topped conference rival Cypress, 11-3, on Saturday at the 2009 Southern California Super Regional Playoffs, played at OCC's Wendell Pickens Field.

With the win, the Pirates advance to Saturday's championship game, where they will face the Mt. San Jacinto College Eagles. Game time is 12 p.m. The Eagles earned their trip to the title game with elimination victories over Saddleback (11-6) and Cypress (10-9).

OCC (33-13) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Ricky Stokes reached on an infield single, went all the way to third on a ground out by Beck Wheeler and scored on a two-out, RBI single to right by Scott Hong.

Cypress (32-16) tied things up in the fifth, but OCC responded in a BIG way in the bottom half of the frame.

The key moment of the inning came early when Hong hit what appeared to be a double-play ground ball to short. However the ball was kicked around, putting runners on first and second with nobody out.

A walk loaded the bases before second baseman Alonzo Torres came through with a two-run double down the right-field line, scoring Wheeler and Hong to make it 3-1.

Three straight RBI singles by Ryan Sheeks, Mykal Stokes and Drew Hillman made it 6-1. Three walks from the next four batters plated two more runs to make it 8-1 before a bases-clearing double by D.J. Arellano (pictured above) capped off the 10-run frame, giving Coast an 11-1 advantage.

The bottom three of the Pirates order -- Hong, Arellano and Torres -- combined to go 4-for-12 with four runs scored and seven RBI.

That was more than enough run support for Wallach, who improved to 9-1 with the win. He limited the Chargers to three runs on 11 hits, walking one and striking out seven over seven innings of work. Reliever Brett Williams threw the final two innings to send the Pirates to the title game.

In other Super Regional action ...

Mt. San Jacinto 11, Saddleback 6 -- Drew Madrigal threw a complete game to lead the Eagles past the Gauchos in an elimination game played at Golden West College. Madrigal allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits, walking three and striking out five.

Josh Eshleman led the Eagles' offense by going 3-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI. Garrett Caldwell, Josh Ray and Ryan Lefevre each added two-run hits for MSJC.

The loss ended the Gauchos' season at 29-20.

Mt. San Jacinto 10, Cypress 9 -- In the late afternoon game played at OCC, the Eagles rallied from a 9-6 deficit in the seventh to eliminate the No. 3 seed Chargers.

The big blow came off the bat of Randy Bruce, who ripped a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to even the game at 9.

In the eighth, John Eshleman was hit by a pitch to start the inning. He stole second, then scored on an RBI single to right by Drew Madrigal, giving the Eagles the lead for good.

Reliever Anthony Martinez threw 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win and improve to 4-1.

The loss ends the Chargers' season at 32-16.