Community College Baseball : OCC Coasts to Win Over Fullerton

The Fullerton College baseball team got stomped Thursday--in more ways than one.

First, it got stomped on the scoreboard at Orange Coast College, where the Pirates ran up a 13-3 win in South Coast Conference play.

Then there was Pirate pitcher Mark Stomp, who improved his record to 4-0.

Stomp kept the Fullerton bats in check for most of the game, getting roughed up only in the seventh inning when he came close to being pulled. He recorded 10 strikeouts in his four-hitter.

Three of those hits came in the seventh inning, when Stomp had what looked like a commanding 3-0 lead. Until then, Stomp had given up only a second-inning single to Jeff Oberdank and at one point had retired 13 straight batters.

All that changed when Tim Speakman singled sharply to center and Oberdank followed with a double to right-center, putting runners at second and third.

Jim Arias knocked in the first Fullerton run on a fielder’s choice and two batters later, Dave Stotereau tied the game, 3-3, with a two-run homer to right-center.

“We were going to pull him right then,” OCC Coach Mike Mayne said. “But he’d only thrown 90 pitches and he usually throws anywhere from 90 to 110 pitches per game. So we just reminded him that he’d gotten out of the pattern that had been so successful for him--he had been beating them with off-speed pitches and those three hits were all off of fastballs.”

Stomp reverted to form to save himself and his team. Following the seventh-inning output, only two Fullerton batters reached base and one of those was on an error.

In the meantime, the OCC offense started rolling. The Pirates scored a total of 10 runs in the seventh and eighth innings to give Stomp more than enough cushion. Designated hitter Gene Roumimper led OCC, going 4 for 4 with two doubles and three RBIs.

“We’ve been a real Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to scoring runs,” Mayne said. “One day we score a ton and the next we get nothing. But today we got what we needed and then some.”

OCC is 7-3 overall and 1-1 in conference. Fullerton is 12-5, 0-2.

In other South Coast Conference action:

Golden West 15, Mt. San Antonio 10--The Rustlers used five hits, five walks, five wild pitches, one error and one balk to score 10 runs in the fifth inning en route to the win in Walnut. Scott Rath, Shane Flores, Casey Martin and Keith Kaub had two hits each for Golden West (2-0, 8-1-1).

Santa Ana 14, Compton 0--Mike Schwabe improved his record to 5-0 with the win in the Dons’ conference opener at Compton. Schwabe worked six innings, allowing no walks, six hits and striking out six. Steve Scarsone was 3 for 4 with an RBI for Santa Ana (12-2).