Pirate baseballers send 10 to next level

COSTA MESA -- Ten players from last year's Southern California champion Orange Coast College baseball team will be continuing their athletic and academic careers at the four-year level, according to head coach John Altobelli.

Among the Pirates moving on include the trio of sophomores Gus Culpo, Cameron Jabara and Chris Ceballos. 

Culpo, who came off of major arm surgeries to go 3-0 with two saves and a 3.86 ERA will be attending the University of Southern California in the fall. In 30 1/3 innings for the Pirates, Culpo allowed 13 earned runs with 38 strikeouts. OCC went 12-1 in the 13 games which he appeared.

Jabara, one of seven OCC players to earn first-team All-Orange Empire Conference honors, will transfer to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas after going 8-0 as a sophomore with a 3.96 ERA. In 72 2/3 innings, he allowed 32 earned runs with 63 strikeouts. For his two-year career, Jabara went 14-1 with a 4.05 ERA, striking out 94 over 120 innings of work.

Ceballos, a team leader behind the plate for the Pirates as a sophomore, will be heading to Kansas State University after batting .319 last year with 53 hits, 39 runs, 20 extra-base hits, three home run and 28 RBI.

Other Pirates to move on to the next level include ... 

• Ramiro Velasco, Hope International University -- Velasco batted .318 with 50 hits, 39 runs, 20 extra-base hits, seven home runs and 41 RBI for the Pirates last season, earning first-team, All-OEC honors in 2018.
• Michael Giacone, North Greenville University -- Giacone, a first-team, All-OEC selection, was the ace of the Pirates starting rotation last year, going 6-2 with a team-best 1.84 ERA with 95 strikeouts over 83 1/3 innings.
• Landon Silver, Lee University -- Silver played in all 49 games for the Pirates last year and batted .295 with 39 hits, 20 runs, 12 doubles and 15 RBI.
• Doug Magee, Seattle University -- A second-team, All-OEC selection, Magee led the relief corps with 22 appearances, going 5-1 with four saves and a 3.28 ERA, allowing just 17 earned runs in 46 2/3 innings.
• Josh Berman, Texas A&M Corpus Christi -- Berman helped at the plate and on the mound for the Pirates in 2018, batting .311 with 38 hits, 32 runs and 26 RBI and going 2-3 with fives saves as OCC's late-inning guy out of the bullpen.
• Domenic Donato, Point Loma Nazarene University -- A steady bat in the middle of the lineup, Donato batted .295 with 51 hits, 20 extra-base hits, 37 runs and 32 RBI for the Pirates last year.
• Sean Skelly, Cal State Northridge -- After coming to the Pirates from the University of Tennessee, Skelly saw limited action at catcher and batted .222 with six hits, six runs and seven RBI, but is a steady force behind the plate.

The 2018 Pirates finished 34-15 and captured their second straight Orange Empire Conference title. Coast advanced to the State Final Four, where they were eliminated in one of the state semifinal matchups against Sacramento City College.