Strong start lifts Pirates past Comets, 7-5
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Palomar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 3 |
|
Orange Coast | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 7 | 7 | 4 |
COSTA MESA -- It was another strong start for the Orange Coast College baseball team, but this time, the Pirates never relinquished the advantage and topped visiting Palomar College, 7-5, on Tuesday at John Altobelli Park.
Coast (6-2), winners of six straight following an 0-2 start, jumped out to a 5-0 lead thanks in large part to a pair of 2-run home runs from Garrett Bevacqua and Cameron Mahaffy and an RBI-double from Cary Arbolida.
Palomar (2-3) slowly chipping into the deficit with single runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to trip OCC's advantage to 5-4.
But in the bottom of the seventh, Coast took advantage of a pair of Comet errors and plated two unearned runs to push the lead up to 7-4.
In the ninth, closer Matt Maloney collected his third save with a scoreless, hitless ninth, walking one and striking out two.
Starter Oscar Villareal (2-0) cruised for the first three innings and allowed three runs total over six innings on eight hits with no walks and one strikeout. He avoided disaster in the top of the sixth when the Comets loaded the bases with nobody out. But a run-scoring double play grounder was followed with a pop out to end the threat, holding Palomar to just one run in the inning.
Cary Arbolida had two hits, a run and an RBI for Coast, while Tyler Weaver added a hit and two runs.
Devlin Lindeman led the Palomar offense with a 2-for-4 performance.
Coast will return to action on Thursday at John Altobelli Park against Southwestern, beginning at 2 p.m.
