Pirates squeak past Dons, 2-1

COSTA MESA -- Unlike Tuesday's run-fest for the Orange Coast College baseball team, the Pirates could only muster two runs on Thursday, but fortunately for the Pirates, two was all they would need in a 2-1 win over visiting Santa Ana.

After bringing in 13 runs on 15 hits -- including three home runs -- against the Dons (a 13-2 win on Tuesday), the Pirates (10-7, 2-0) could only find four singles in their bat rack, but they managed to find heros on the mound to collect their fourth straight win.

Cameron Jabara pitched five strong innings to pick up his second win of the season, allowing one run on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Reliever Josh Berman came in and pitched the final four frames to earn his second save, allowing no runs on three hits with a walk and five Ks.

SAC's Natham Cachu pitched well, but took the hardluck loss, allowing two unearned runs on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Santa Ana (10-8, 0-2) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth when Erick Leef chopped a double down the left-field line and scored two batters later on an RBI-infield single off the bat of Raymond Villanueva.

But the Pirates answered right back and took advantage of a costly SAC error to grab the lead. Clifford Pradd led off with a single to right and advanced to third on a botched throw by Cachu on a sacrifice bunt by Javier Rosales.

Two batters later, Joey Fregosi lofted a sacrifice fly to right to score Pradd and Chris Ceballos followed with a two-out, RBI-single to left to score Rosales, putting Coast up, 2-1.

The Dons had a runner at second base with one out in both the seventh and ninth innings, but Berman managed to wiggle out of danger both times. In the seventh, Berman struck out William Meissner and Pradd retired Villanueva on a play deep in the hole at shortstop to end the threat. In the ninth, Berman took care of his own business with back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.

The Pirates and the Dons will wrap up their three-game series at Santa Ana College on Friday, beginning at 2 p.m. (Note the date change to avoid potential rainy weather on Saturday.)