Jacob Hill improves to 8-0 as Pirates roll past Tigers, 5-1

COSTA MESA -- Sophomore lefty Jacob Hill improved to 8-0 for the season as the Orange Coast College baseball team toppled visiting Riverside City College, 5-1, on Tuesday at Wendell Pickens Field.

Hill allowed one run on four hits over eight innings with four walks and four strikeouts for the Pirates (21-7, 9-5 in the Orange Empire Conference). For the season, Hill has now allowed six earned runs over 50 innings (1.08 ERA) with 48 strikeouts.

It wasn't as easy as it looked as the Tigers (13-14, 7-7), who left 10 runners on base (five over the final two innings). A pair of double plays early in the game and some stellar glove work by several Pirate teammates helped Hill's cause.

A big defensive stop came in the top of the eighth when the Tigers loaded the bases after the first two men were retired. Austin Sodders hit a high chopper up the middle, but second baseman L. Grant Davis went to his right, made a sliding, short-hop grab and stepped on the bag to force out the RCC runner coming from first to end the threat.

Coast started the scoring in the bottom of the second when Chris Iriart walked and scored from first on an RBI-double to left by Tommy Bell (2-for-4).

In the third, Davis ripped a two-out triple to right-center and scored on an RBI-single to left by Cody Nulph (2-for-4).

An infield single by Robert Longtree (2-for-3) and a botched sacrifice bunt by the Tigers off the bat of Cody Bruder put runners on first and second with nobody out in the bottom of the fifth. After Davis moved them up a base with another SAC bunt, Nulph and Bell each drove in runs with RBI-hits, putting Coast up 4-0. Bell and Nulph each had two RBI in the game.

Riverside's Nick King (3-for-5) doubled in the sixth and eventually scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 4-1, but the Pirates regained their four-run advantage in the bottom of the frame.

Justin Broussard led off the sixth with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jake Thumm. Longtree followed with an infield single and when King tried to pick Broussard off of third on the play, the ball sailed wide of its target, allowing Broussard to score.