Pirates stay alive in Super Regionals with 4-2 win over Glendale

GLENDALE -- In a must-win situation, the Orange Coast College baseball team stepped up and posted a 4-2 victory over Glendale on Saturday at Casey Stengel Field to even this weekend's Southern California Super Regional playoff best-of-three matchup at a win apiece.

After an utterly forgetful 13-0 loss in the series opener, the Pirates did just that and moved into a winner-take-all matchup on Sunday at 12 p.m. at Stengel Field with a trip to the Southern California Sectional playoffs on the line.

After some continued early offensive troubles, the Pirates (24-16) finally pieced together a few good at-bats in a row and grabbed their first (and only) lead of the series against the Vaqueros (21-19) in the bottom of the seventh inning (OCC was the designated home team).

With the scored tied at 2, Nick Grimes started the seventh with a single to right off of reliever Andy Frakes (5-1) and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Prescott and moved to third after Jeff Nellis reached on a fielding error by the Glendale second baseman.

A passed ball moved Nellis to second before Chaneng Varela executed a perfect squeeze bunt that resulted in a bunt single that scored Grimes and put OCC ahead, 3-2. With Nellis now at third base, Tommy Bell beat out a fielder's choice grounder that scored Coast's fourth run of the game and that would be enough.

Pirate righty Scott Serigstad (6-3) came in out of the bullpen and shut down the Vaqueros over the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing no runs, no hits, one walk and one strikeout. Starter Dominic Purpura gave Coast what it needed -- a strong performance -- allowing just two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.

Purpura was matched up against Glendale hurler Christian Kearny, who allowed two runs on four hits and eight strikeouts over six innings before leaving in honor of Frakes.

Glendale got on the scoreboard early. With Dylan Bahr on third and Harrison Hoff on at first and two outs, Hoff intentionally broke early for second base. Purpura quickly turned and ran towards Hoff, allowing Bahr to break to the plate and steal home, putting the Vaqueros up 1-0.

In the bottom of the third, Coast tied things up when Grimes walked, went to third when an infield single by Prescott was misplayed by Kearny and scored two batters later on an RBI-single by Varela, who finished with two hits and two RBI.

It stayed that way until the top of the sixth when Brent Sakurai lined an RBI-single into right-center, putting the Vaqueros back out in front, 2-1.

But back came the Pirates in the bottom half of the sixth when Tommy Bell reached base after getting hit on the hand by Kearny and, after advancing to second on a wild pitch, scored on an RBI-double to left-center by Stephen Corona.

Glendale would threaten in the top of the seventh with a runner on third with only one out, but Serigstad beared down and struck out Bahr and coaxed a harmless ground out by Jared Akins to end the frame.

From there, Serigstad sent the Vaqueros down in order in eighth and ninth innings to give the Pirates the win.