Ross delivers strong effort as Pirates roll past Dons

SANTA ANA -- Just when you think you've got the Orange Empire Conference figured out ... another week of games throw the experts for a loop. The Orange Coast College baseball team -- left for dead after last week's deflating sweep at the hands of seventh-place Cypress -- have now won two straight over defending state champion Santa Ana with a 9-4 win over the Dons on Thursday at Don Sneddon Field.

The back-to-back wins by the wacky Pirates (15-21, 9-8 in the OEC) have helped continue the logjam in the conference standings with six teams within three games of each other and four teams tied for third, including the under .500 Pirates. Golden West continues to win and lead the OEC with a 12-5 conference record, two-games ahead of second-place Saddleback at 10-7, with Coast, Santa Ana, Riverside, and Fullerton lurking close behind at 9-8 with four conference games remaining.

Coast was keyed offensively by three guys -- Koby Williams, Kanan Treece and Dylan Krause -- and starting pitcher Jack Ross kept the Dons (25-10-1, 9-8) in check for 7 2/3 innings before Zach DenDekker took care of the rest. 

With the score tied at 1 in the top of the third, Coast grabbed the lead for good with an RBI-single off the bat of Luke Flinn and a three-run home run from Williams, putting Coast up 5-1. 

Santa Ana scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to make it 5-3 and it stayed a two-run game (6-4) through the seventh. Finally, in the top of the eighth, Treece came through with a two-run home run to make it 8-4 before Coast tacked on an unearned run before the inning was finished.

Williams, Treece and Krause had six of OCC's hits, six of its RBI and six of its runs scored. 

As for Ross, the sophomore righty showed the grit of a champion, giving Coast a long outing and in spite of allowing 10 SAC hits, he held the hosts to just four runs with two walks and five strikeouts to pick up the win and improve his record to 3-3. DenDekker came in and retired four of the five batters he faced to close the game out for Coast.

Game 3 of this three-game series will take place on Saturday at John Altobelli Park, beginning at 12 p.m.