Pirates lose late lead, fall to Tigers, 5-4

COSTA MESA --The Orange Coast College baseball team lost a two-run lead in the top of the eighth inning and could not answer back in Tuesday's 5-4 loss to visiting Riverside City College.

With the loss, the Pirates (21-11, 9-8) fall into a tie for third place in the Orange Empire Conference with Saddleback (21-11, 9-8), one game behind the Tigers (21-11, 10-7) and four games behind first-place Fullerton (23-9, 13-4) with four games remaining.

Coast trailed 2-0 in the top of the fourth when David Schuknecht singled to left with one out and advanced to third on a hit-and-run single to left by K.C. Huth. Daniel Arellano lifted a sacrifice fly to bring in Schuknecht to make it 1-0. After Kenny Mathews singled Huth over to third, Michael Deceglie drove Huth in with an RBI-single to center to make it 2-0.

The Pirates responded in the bottom half of the fifth to tie the score. Austin Saenz reached on an infield error and advanced to second on a bunt single by Cody Bruder (3-for-4, one run, two RBI). 

Jake Toll-McKillop bunted back to Mathews, Riverside's starting pitcher, but a throw down to second base proved too late, loading the bases with nobody out. 

Greg Espinosa lifted a sacrifice fly to score Saenz to make it 2-1 and a bunt-single by Zach Nehrir scored Bruder to make it 2-2. But Mathews settled down and retired the next two OCC batters to avoid further damage.

In the bottom of the sixth, Coast grabbed a 4-2 lead when Danny Jimenez led off with a double and advanced to third on a single to left by Manny Argomaniz. Two batters later, Bruder chopped a single over a drawn-in infield to score both runs.

OCC starting pitcher David Wilson battled through some early trouble and pitched into the eighth inning before a one-out single by Nick King and a HBP by Ricardo Rodriguez knocked him out of the game.

Kyle Dowdy came in and after a walk loaded the bases, he struck out Huth for the second out. But from there, it became a Pirate nightmare as Arellano drove in a run with a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and Mathews tied the game with a bases-loaded walk. The eventual winning run came on a passed ball as the Tigers scored three runs without the benefit of a hit.

That lead was enough for reliever Cortland Cox (4-3), who retired seven straight batters before allowing singles to Bruder and Espinosa in the ninth inning. RCC's big righty wiggled out of the jam by striking out Nehrir with two outs to end the game. Cox pitched three scoreless innings to pick up the win, allowing two hits and two strikeouts along the way.

Wilson pitched 7 1/3 innings for OCC and allowed four runs on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Mathews pitched six innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

The Pirates will return to action on Thursday at Saddleback College, beginning at 2 p.m. OCC's next home game will be on Saturday at 12 p.m. against the Gauchos.