Pirates cruise to 9-1 win over Eagles in playoff opener

COSTA MESA -- It was smooth sailing for the Orange Coast College softball team as the Pirates needed just six innings to top Mt. San Jacinto, 9-1, on Friday in Game 1 of the Southern California Regional playoffs on Friday at the OCC Softball Stadium.

With the win, the top-seeded Pirates (29-7) take a 1-0 lead in this best-of-three series with the 16th-seeded Eagles (30-11), with Game 2 set for Saturday at OCC, beginning at 12 p.m. with a third game set (if necessary) immediately following Game 2.

Reyna Hernandez is showing that she is a BIG fan of playing in the Southern California Regionals, going 2-for-3 with a pair of home runs and two RBI. Adding this success to last year's series against Bakersfield, Hernandez is a combined 6-for-12 with SIX home runs, seven runs scored and 10 RBI in just four SoCal Regional contests.

The top of the OCC lineup -- Olivia Pedraza, Kelsey McNair, Jasmyn Morales and Kimora Tuipala -- led the way with a combined eight hits, six runs and six RBI combined.

All that offensive support was more than enough for freshman pitcher Daniella Sanchez, who improved to 11-1 with the complete-game win, allowing one run on four hits, walking four and striking out two. 

For the Eagles, Brooke Schaffer went 1-for-1 with a pair of walks and an RBI, while the rest of the MSJC offense went a combined 3-for-22. Starting pitcher Ellianna Pasley took the loss (15-4) after allowing four runs on six hits with a walk and a pair of strikeouts. 

After the first of Hernandez's solo HRs put Coast up 1-0 in the second inning, Tuipala came up with two runners on in the third and cue-balled a spinning infield single that bounced away from the MSJC infielder at second, allowing McNair to score, putting Coast, 2-0.

Coast broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth when Hernandez launched her second home run of the game to lead things off, putting the Pirates up 3-0. From there, a two-run double to left-center by McNair, an RBI-single by Morales and a run-scoring defensive miscue by the Eagles capped off the five-run frame, putting the Pirates up, 7-0.

After Mt. San Jacinto made it 7-1 in the fifth, Coast tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the game early. An RBI-grounder by Morales and a run-scoring single by Tuipala wrapped up the game and OCC's 11-hit attack on the Eagle pitchers.