Pirates dream big, capture OEC crown for 2021

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College baseball team made the absolute most of their 2021 opportunities and successfully defended its Orange Empire Conference crown for the fourth consecutive season.

On Friday, Coast rolled past Cypress, 9-1, to earn at least a share of the OEC crown and on Tuesday, thanks to a 9-5 win by Golden West over the Chargers, the Pirates will now hold sole possession of the OEC championship the rest of the way, in spite of falling to Santa Ana, 8-3 in this week's series opener at SAC. 

With just two conference games remaining, the Pirates (19-5-1, 13-3 in OEC) have a three-game advantage over the second-place Chargers (14-11, 10-6) and Dons (13-11-1, 10-6). In a year where there will be no Southern California Regional playoffs or State Final Four, the OEC crown will have to do for the Pirates.

OCC's win on Friday, paired with SAC's loss to Saddleback, sent the Pirates into a postgame frenzy after being told of the OEC title, a title well deserved after overcoming not only the global pandemic and uncertainty of the 2021 season, but also the loss of their head coach, John Altobelli, back in January, 2020.

"It's hard to put into words what (Friday) meant," said new OCC head coach Nate Johnson after earning his first-ever OEC title as Pirate skipper. "Simply put, it meant the world to me. It put an exclamation point on the end of a really terrible year and a half. Finally being able to say we did it, we won for Alto, we won for Keri and we won for Alyssa is a really emotional thing for me, my coaches and our players. We all wish we could have had a chance at a state championship, but we did all we could given the restrictions of this year and I couldn't be prouder of this group.

"In December, we had no idea if we'd be able to actually even play this year. To be able to play and have such a great year and win our fourth consecutive OEC championship just speaks volumes of my coaches and our guys. It's been an absolute roller coaster for them. They've had to deal with so much adversity for this past year and a half and finally, they have something to show for it."

In Friday's win over the Chargers, OCC starter Kelly Austin improved to a perfect 5-0 for the season after six strong innings, holding Cypress to one run on six hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Reliever Brennan Farber picked up his second save with three scoreless, hitless innings to wrap things up.

Tyler Weaver went 3-for-4 with a home run, two runs and three RBI for OCC, while Jared Schatz continued his strong play atop the batting order with two hits, three runs and an RBI. Garret Barto also slugged a home run and went 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI. 

A hard-fought 2-1 lead by the Pirates was extended in the bottom of the fifth as Weaver's two-run blast and Barto's solo shot pushed the Pirates in front, 5-1. Coast tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the seventh and a solo tally in the eighth to pull away from the Chargers late. 

The Pirates and Dons will continue their series on Thursday at SAC, beginning at 2 p.m. with the season-ending doubleheader set for Friday at 12 p.m. at OCC's Wendell Pickens Field (no spectators).