Pirates blast past Glendale to advance to SoCal Sectionals!

GLENDALE -- Two days after their worst game of the year, the Orange Coast College Pirates played one of their best and topped Glendale, 7-1, on Sunday to win this weekend's Southern California Super Regional series, played at Casey Stengel Field.

The Pirates (25-16) showed their ability to quickly forget about Friday's 13-0 loss in the series opener and earned back-to-back wins -- 4-2 on Saturday and 7-1 on Sunday -- to advance to next weekend's Southern California Sectionals, where they will play at Santa Barbara City College in a best-of-three series, beginning on Friday afternoon.

There were several heroes in Sunday's win, but one that shined extra bright for OCC was sophomore pitcher/slugger Stephen Corona, who not only picked up the win with 5 2/3 innings of solid work, he also went 2-for-3 with a double, home run, two runs and three RBI. Corona allowed just four hits over his stint on the mound with no walks and four strikeouts. 

For the Vaqueros (21-20), their first real offensive threat came in the bottom of the sixth when Corona allowed a one-out double to Dylan Bahr and a two-out infield single to to Harrison Hof, putting runners on the corners. Coast went to reliever Scott Serigstad and the sophomore righty came in and worked an inning-ending ground-ball out to end the threat.

From there, Coast went to work. Clinging to a 1-0 lead on Corona's solo blast in the top of the fifth, OCC loaded the bases with a single by James McLellan, a walk by Stefan Panayiotou and a single by Chris Prescott. Reliever Ryan Losman came in and promptly uncorked a wild pitch, allowing McLellan to score to make it 2-0.

Again, Glendale threatened in the bottom of the seventh. With a runner on third and nobody out, Serigstad went to work and struck out Brent Sakurai for the first out, got Alex Gomez on a ground out to third and retired Randy Medellin on a juggling foul-ball catch by catcher Jack Kruger, keeping Coast ahead, 2-0.

The flood gates opened in the top of the eighth as the Pirates erupted for five runs to blow the game open. A walk by Chaneng Varela and back-to-back singles by Tommy Bell and Kruger loaded the bases with nobody out. Corona, who stayed in the game as OCC's designated hitter, ripped a double-down the right-field line, bringing home Varela and Bell to make it 4-0.

Reliever Andy Frakes came into the game for Glendale and McLellan (2-for-4, two runs, three RBI) greeted the Vaquero closer with a towering three-run home run to left, putting Coast up 7-0.

Jack Pabich worked a scoreless ninth to wrap up the series for the Pirates, who will now travel up the coast to play Santa Barbara City College. "Those" Vaqueros (32-9), co-champions of the Wetern State Conference's North Division, advanced to the Sectionals by holding off Fullerton College, 4-0, in Game 3 of their best-of-three series.