Wilson leads Pirates past Gauchos, 2-0

COSTA MESA -- Freshman righty David Wilson pitched seven shutout innings to lead the Orange Coast College baseball team to a 2-0 win over visiting Saddleback College on Tuesday at Wendell Pickens Field.

Wilson (4-1), making his first start of the season, held the Gauchos scoreless on just three hits over seven innings, walking none and striking out six along the way.

Reliever David Longville pitched a scoreless eighth and Joe Reta retired three straight batters and notched two strikeouts for his first save of the season for the Pirates (15-6, 3-3 in the Orange Empire Conference).

For the Gauchos, (11-6, 2-4), starter Seth Pedersen pitched well enough to win, but received no help from his offense. He allowed two earned runs over seven innings on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

The Pirates took the lead for good in the bottom of the second inning. Austin Saenz and Danny Jimenez each singled and with runners on first and third, Anthony Virgen used a fly ball to right to score Saenz to make it 1-0.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth when OCC picked up a little breathing room. With one out, Ricky Navarro singled to center and Manny Argomaniz sent him to third on a hit-and-run single to center. 

Saenz laid down a safety squeeze that brought in Navarro to make it 2-0. 

That turned out to be enough for Wilson, who wiggled out of a couple of jams to keep his lead in tact. In the fifth, Saddleback put runners on first and third with one out when Cody Schmitz hit a comebacker to Wilson, who retired the runner trying to score. From there, Slate Miller flew out to right and the inning was over.

In the top of the sixth, a two-out hit batter and and single put Gauchos on the corners, but Wilson helped himself out and was on the first-base bag following a nice play by Danny Jimenez, who threw to Wilson in time to retire batter Brian Romero.  

Saddleback's last big chance to draw even came in the top of the eighth when Miller reached base and advanced to second on a throwing error by the Pirates. But the next batter, Jeff Butler, ripped a line-drive to Jimenez at first, who caught the ball, then doubled off Miller at second to end the threat.

Noah Graham led off the top of the ninth with a single to left, but Reta came in to retire the next three batters to end the game.

Orange Coast will play at Irvine Valley on Thursday (2 p.m.) and at Golden West on Saturday (12 p.m.) before returning to Wendell Pickens Field to host the Rustlers on Tuesday (2 p.m.).