Community College Baseball: Chargers hammer Pirates

Just two days after Easter eggs were somewhat of a national obsession, the Orange Coast College baseball pitching staff encountered some serious frustration in its search for goose eggs Tuesday afternoon.

The host Pirates allowed 29 hits in a 15-9 loss to Cypress, which failed to score in only two innings to move into a tie with OCC for first place in the Orange Empire Conference.

Cypress (21-8, 10-4 in conference), ranked No. 3 in Southern California, opened a 5-1 lead, only to see the Pirates (19-10, 10-4), ranked No. 2 in SoCal, rally to tie in the bottom of the fifth inning.

But the Chargers, who hit .558 on Tuesday to raise their season average 13 points to .311, scored three in the sixth and two more in the seventh to double the score on OCC, which saw its seven-game winning streak halted.

Cypress hitters ganged up on Pirates pitching, as all nine starters contributed hits. Eight Chargers, in fact, had multiple hits, with seven of the visitors posting at least three.

Sophomore second baseman Jackson Willeford, who has committed to play next season at UC Irvine, went five for six and scored three times to lead the offensive output, which surpassed the combined totals posted by the Chargers in their three previous games (14 runs and 28 hits), two of which were losses.

Freshman catcher John Santospago was four for five with five RBIs and two runs, while sophomore first baseman Tyler Gnesda went three for five with four RBIs for the winners, who fell to OCC, 3-2, in their first meeting of the season, March 5 at Cypress.

Gnesda upped his conference-leading RBI total to 30, nine more than OCC leader Tommy Bell, a sophomore right fielder who went one for four and did not drive in a run Tuesday.

Cypress, which left 14 runners on base (four more than OCC), had at least one hit in each of the first eight innings, before OCC sophomore pitcher Cody Maples shut down the visitors with a hitless ninth inning of relief.

After being retired in order in the first two innings, OCC contributed to the hit parade, managing 14 in the final seven innings, all but one of which it posted at least one run.

“We came back and tied it,” said OCC Coach John Altobelli, who jokingly opened his postgame comments by announcing he had fired all three of his pitching coaches. “To me, it was like the Duke-Wisconsin [NCAA men’s basketball championship game on Monday]. I was trying to explain to our guys that, OK Duke [Cypress] just made a run, so we [Wisconsin] needed to answer back. But that analogy lasted only about three innings.”

Among those who badgered Chargers pitchers most effectively were freshman first baseman J.T. McLellan, sophomore designated hitter Stephen Corona, freshman center fielder Chris Prescott and freshman reserve infielder Mondesi Gutierrez, who all had two hits apiece.

McClellan drove in three runs, including a two-run double that was the key blow in OCC’s three-run fourth inning that pared the deficit to 5-4.

Corona’s sacrifice fly in the fifth plated Bell, who had singled, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, and reached third on a balk, to pull the Pirates even.

But Cypress regained control, allowing sophomore starting pitcher Jaret Vermillion to improve to 5-1, despite allowing six runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Art Vidrio, whose next win will tie him with former major league all-star Dan Quisenberry for No. 8 on the school’s career list with 14, allowed five runs on 13 hits in four innings. Vidrio, who had won his previous four starts, including back-to-back complete games in the most recent two, had been 10-1 with two no decisions in his previous 13 starts, dating back to last season. He was not involved in the decision Tuesday, but saw his earned-run average swell from 1.96 to 2.54.

OCC will try to regain sole possession of first place when the two teams conclude their three-game conference series on Thursday at 2 p.m. at Cypress.

“I told [OCC players] to forget about it and flush it,” Altobelli said. “That’s baseball. It only counts as one loss, so let’s get over it and come out Thursday with a playoff atmosphere and maybe see if we can get a win to make it two out of three [against Cypress].”

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Orange Empire Conference

Cypress 15, Orange Coast 9

SCORE BY INNINGS

Cypress 111 203 250 – 15 29 2

OCC 001 310 211 –9 14 1

Vermillion, Ornales (7), Jarvis (9) and Santospago, Ronca (9); Vidrio, Costello (5), Pabich (6), Serigstad (7), Stablein (8), Maples (9) and Kruger, Pulcheon (9). W – Vermillion, 5-1. L – Costello, 3-3. 2B – Santospago (C) 2, Au. Case (C) 2, McLellan (OCC), Blasing (OCC).