Pirates' season ends with series loss at Palomar

SAN MARCOS -- The Orange Coast College baseball team saw its 2013 season come to an end this past weekend at the Southern California Regional playoffs, losing to Palomar College in a best-of-three series.

The 11th-seeded Pirates (23-16) lost the series opener to the sixth-seeded Comets (26-12) on Friday, 3-2. Coast evened the series on Saturday with a 5-2 win before falling the nightcap, 1-0.

In the opener, Coast jumped out to a 2-0 lead with solo runs in the second and third innings. Cody Bruder singled in the second and scored on an RBI-double off the bat of Tucker Chadd. In the third, Manny Argomaniz singled, advanced to third on a base hit by Ricky Navarro and scored on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Virgen.

But the Comets responded with two runs in the bottom of the third, thanks to a pair of costly errors by the Pirates.

Another error by OCC in the bottom of the fourth scored Palomar's third-and-final run, spoiling a solid performance by Pirate right-hander Kyle Dowdy, who pitched a complete game, but suffered the loss (6-3). He allowed three runs (two earned) on eight hits, walking one while striking out five.

Greg Espinosa was the lone Coast player with a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3.

In Game 2, Coast found some offensive support en route to a 5-2 win. Trailing 1-0, Coast rallied for three runs in the fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run double by Virgen and an RBI-double by Bruder. Chadd and Austin Saenz each came through with RBI-hits to give OCC a 5-1 lead before Palomar closed out the scoring with a single run in the eighth.

Jacob Hill picked up the win (2-2) after throwing seven-plus innings, allowing two runs on eight hits with no walks and four strikeouts. Closer David Wilson allowed no runs on two hits and a walk over the final two innings to finish things out.

The win set up a winner-take-all third game later on Saturday. The offense that produced 11 hits and five runs in the win was nowhere to be found in the nightcap as the Pirates were eliminated 1-0.

OCC starter Evan Porcella (3-2) pitched a complete game, allowing just one run on four hits over eight innings, but a two-out, RBI-double by Palomar's Justin Hargrove proved to be the difference. Hargrove drove in Denny Vigo, who had walked one batter earlier.

Vaughn Berberet (5-1) threw eight shutout innings for the Comets before closer Zach Wilkins retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his 11th save of the season.