Pirates roll past Golden West; take over first place in OEC
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Golden West | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 4 |
|
Orange Coast | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 14 | 10 | 3 |
COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College baseball team regained sole possession of first place in the Orange Empire Conference on Saturday, thanks to a 14-7 win over visiting Golden West College.
With the win and a 5-4 loss by Riverside City College against Saddleback, the Pirates (29-8, 14-4 in OEC) move one game ahead of the Tigers (27-10, 13-5) atop the conference standings with three games left to play. OCC will play its final three-game series of the season against Irvine Valley (beginning on Tuesday at IVC at 2 p.m.), while the Tigers take on Santa Ana (beginning on Tuesday at RCC at 2 p.m.).
On Saturday, Coast took advantage of sub-par baseball by the Rustlers (18-19, 8-10) and turned eight walks, four errors and two hit batters into a plethora of unearned runs.
Both teams struggled to find any type of pitching success early on as the Rustlers tacked on single runs in the first two innings and added three more in the third, while OCC scored three runs in each of the first two frames and led, 6-5 heading into the bottom of the fourth.
From there, the Pirates broke the game open, scoring eight runs on only three hits with three errors and four walks thrown into the frame.
The highlight of the fateful fourth inning came when Travis Moniot lined a shot into the right-field gap for a inside-the-park home run, scoring J.T. Navarro ahead of him. Also in the fourth, Jacob White and Navarro ripped two-run hits to give Coast a 14-5 advantage.
Moniot finished 2-for-2 with three walks, three runs and two RBI, while Robert Teel added two hits, two runs and two RBI.
Reliever Blair Lewis came in early and threw five strong innings to pick up the win and improve to 3-1. He allowed just one run on four hits with three strikeouts.
