Kimora KABOOM! Pirates rally for 7-6 win over Chargers for OEC Co-Crown

CYPRESS -- The Orange Coast College softball team made a little history on Friday afternoon, earning at least a piece of the Orange Empire Conference title for the first time in 33 years after rallying for a 7-6 win over Cypress College.

With the Pirates (27-6, 15-3 in the OEC) down 6-1 and just six offensive outs remaining, it looked like a series sweep and an outright OEC crown looked inevitible for the host Chargers (28-9, 12-3) but this magical season for the Pirates had one more fun twist to it.

After Coast climbed back into the game at 6-4 with a three-run sixth inning on four hits and some sloppy Cypress defense, the stage was set for a seventh-inning comeback.

With one out, Kelsey McNair walked and moved up to second on a single up the middle by Olivia Pedraza. Both runners tried to move up when a pitch snuck away from the Cypress catcher, but McNair was thrown out at third and just like that, the Pirates were down to their final out.

Jasmyn Morales earned a walk which brought up Kimora Tuipala. After picking up two strikes, the Pirate slugger finally found a pitch she liked and launched a shot FAR over the left-field fence, putting the Pirates ahead of the shocked Chargers, 7-6. It was her fourth home run of the season to go along with 26 RBI, adding some extra muscle and depth to the Pirate lineup.

"To have a recruit like Kimora come to OCC -- a feared hitter and a humble player with a great career ahead of her -- is such a bright spot for OCC softball," OCC head coach Jodie Kiaha said. "She is a local product from the OC Batbusters and Segerstrom HS. She and (Morales) have changed our offense with a display of power that is impressive to watch."

From there McNair came in and rolled through the Cypress lineup 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts to collect her sixth save of the season. Her season numbers are 4-0 with a 0.58 ERA and 39 strikeouts in just 24 innings of work. "Kelsey is a special athlete who has speed, strength and can also pitch at a high velocity with no fear of failure," Kiaha said. 

After being frustrated by Cypress standout pitcher Haley Tucker for the first two games, Coast finally got the big hit at the right time to avoid the sweep and earn at least a share of the OEC title for the first time since the 1992 season. Cypress still has a three-game series with Golden West next week and one loss by the Chargers would give Coast sole possession of the conference crown.

Pedraza went 2-for-4 with two runs scored for OCC. McNair added a hit, a run and an RBI, while Isabel Lopez went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

"I think it's icing on the cake to at least share the OEC title this year," Kiaha said. "To be honest, we needed this series to level-up our players for the postseason and we needed to make some adjustments both on offense and defense to lock in our postseason approach. We have 17 freshmen so all of these experiences are feeding into our dominant team culture as preparation down the road. I'm excited to take this team into the postseason and represent Orange Coast College with pride."

After a long drought of softball success at OCC, winning is getting more and more comfortable as the Pirates prepare for the postseason for the second straight season. Before that begins, Coast will wrap up the regular season with a pair of nonconference games ... at Cerritos on Saturday (12 p.m.) and a home matchup with state No. 1, Long Beach City College on Thursday (2:30 p.m.).