Pirates complete three-game sweep over Cuesta

COSTA MESA -- After a slow start to the 2015 season, the Orange Coast College baseball team made it three wins in a row over Cuesta College, completing the series sweep on Saturday with a 4-2 win at Wendell Pickens Field.

The Pirates (5-3) picked up a strong pitching performance from the trio of Casey Costello (2-0), Andrew Frank and Dominic Purpura, while Tommy Bell (2-for-4, one run, two RBI), Stefan Panayiotou (2-for-4, one run) and Stephen Corona (2-for-2, one RBI) provided enough offense to support the pitchers' efforts.

Costello allowed two runs on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts over five innings. Frank allowed one hit in a scoreless sixth, while Purpura earned his second save of the year with a three-inning, one-hit, two strikeout performance.

Coast jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Jack Kruger singled and scored on an RBI-triple off the bat of Bell, who finished the three-game series 6-for-9 with seven runs scored and six RBI. Corona followed with an RBI-single to right for the Pirates' second run.

Cuesta starter Jackson Gentes threw seven solid innings, but a costly wild pitch with runners on first and third helped give Coast a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third.

The Cougars chipped into the three-run deficit with single runs in the fourth and fifth. RJ Hassey provided an RBI-single in the fourth to score Josh Flaco and in the fifth, Blake Chandler ripped a solo home run to right-center.

But in the bottom of the fifth, Panayiotou tripled to right and scored on an RBI-single by Bell, putting Coast ahead, 4-2.

From there, Frank and Purpura held the Cougars (0-6) to just four base runners the rest of the way, helping the Pirates to their 13th win in their past 15 meetings with the Cougars, dating back to 2010.

Coast will return to action on Tuesday at Long Beach City College (2 p.m.) before returning to Wendell Pickens Field on Wednesday against College of the Desert (2 p.m.).