Pirates fall to Lasers, 8-6, in 11 innings

COSTA MESA -- A head-scratching week of baseball for the Orange Coast College Pirates came to a hair-pulling conclusion on Saturday at Wendell Pickens Field with an  8-6, 11-inning loss to visiting Irvine Valley.

The loss, OCC's third in a row, drops the Pirates (19-12, 10-6) into a tie for second place with Golden West (18-13, 10-6) and one game behind first-place Cypress (22-9, 11-5) in the race for the Orange Empire Conference crown.

Things looked good early on for the Pirates as they jumped ahead 4-1 after three innings, but the Lasers took advantage of a costly OCC error and scored three runs (one earned) in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 4. Lucas Tancas and Adam Vargas singled to open the frame and Jordan Gillerman's sacrifice bunt was thrown away by starting pitcher Scott Serigstad, putting IVC to within a run at 4-3. Branden Williams followed with a sacrifice fly to center to score Gillerman to tie the game up.

From there, it became a game of missed opportunities for both teams as neither could find that big hit to grab the lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Coast had runners on first and second with only one out, but IVC reliever Cole Millerd (1-4) wiggled out of the jam and kept Coast off of the scoreboard. It was the first of four consecutive innings where the Pirates had multiple runners on base with less than two outs and failed to produce in the clutch.

OCC's best chance came in the bottom of the eighth when Chris Prescott led off with an infield single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jeff Nellis. Robert Longtree followed with a hit-by-pitch and Chaneng Varela singled to left to load the bases with the heart of the order coming up.

But Millerd beared down and coaxed a pair of harmless infield fly outs to end the threat.

From there, it was IVC's turn to leave multiple runners on base as the Lasers left a pair on in the top of the ninth and 10th innings, keeping the game tied.

Finally, in the top of the 11th, the Lasers grabbed the lead for good. With two outs and runners on the corners, Tancas lined a fly ball into right-center, where Tommy Bell nearly pulled off an amazing catch, but the ball fell out of his glove and allowed both runners to score, putting IVC ahead, 6-4. Vargas hit what appeared to be a routine pop up over the pitcher's mound, but no Pirate player could corral the ball, allowing Tancas to score from second to make it 7-4. After Vargas stole second, Gillerman lined a double down the left-field line to score Vargas and make it 8-4.

Those two extra runs caused by the sun-aided misplay behind the mound proved costly because in the bottom of the 11th, the Pirates plated a pair of runs to make it 8-6 before Millerd retired his final batter with a line-out to left, ending the game.

Stephen Corona went 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Pirates, while Varela and Nick Grimes each had two hits one run and one RBI.

Tancas led the IVC offense with a 3-for-5 performance with two runs and two RBI, while Clint Jack added three hits, a run and an RBI.

The Pirates and Lasers will play at IVC on Tuesday, beginning at 2 p.m. OCC's next home game will be on Friday at 2 p.m. against Golden West.