Pirates rally late to top Olympians, 3-2
| Final (8) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
San Diego Mesa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
|
Orange Coast | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
COSTA MESA -- It was a battle right down to the final pitch and in the end, it was the Orange Coast College softball team who pulled out a 3-2, eight-inning win over visiting San Diego Mesa College on Tuesday at the OCC Softball Stadium.
A back-and-forth pitcher's duel between OCC's Daniella Sanchez and Mesa's Olivia Anderson went to the bottom of the seventh inning. With OCC trailing 2-1, Kayla Vargas led things off with a walk. After Isabel Lopez moved her over to second with a sacrifice bunt, Reyna Hernandez walked to put runners on first and second.
After a fielder's choice put runners on first and third with two outs, Olivia Pedraza delivered the first of several late-inning clutch hits, lining a single to center to score Vargas with the tying run, sending the game to extra innings.
Pirate relief pitcher Kelsey McNair (2-0) worked around a pair of eighth-inning walks to keep the Olympians (6-6) off of the scoreboard and from there, the Pirates won the game in the bottom of the frame.
A one-out shot to deep right field off the bat of Jasmyn Morales banged off of the fence for a double. From there, Anastasia Quintana sent the Pirates and their chilly fans home happy when she split the gap in right center to bring Morales home with the game-winning run. Quintana went 2-for-4 for the Pirates, while Lopez went 1-for-2 with a solo home run in the bottom of the third for Coast's first run of the game.
Sanchez held the Olympians to just two runs (one earned) on just two hits over five innings with two walks and three strikeouts. McNair picked up the win with three scoreless innings of work with three strikeouts.
Anderson took the hardluck loss for the Olympians after holding Coast to just three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts over the entire 7 1/3 innings of work.
