Community College Baseball : Orange Coast Seals Own Doom By Lack of Timely Hitting, One Untimely Pitch

The fateful pitch had been thrown almost three hours before, but even after Thursday afternoon’s South Coast Conference game between Orange Coast and Cerritos colleges had ended, it was all Pirate Coach Mike Mayne could think about.

In the Cerritos first inning, with two runners on, two out and power-hitting Scott Wilkinson at the plate, Orange Coast pitcher Mark Stomp picked a most inopportune time to throw a high fastball. Wilkinson promptly hit it over the center-field fence for a three-run home run that led the first-place Falcons to a 4-3 win at Costa Mesa and started a day of frustration for Mayne.

“That was a dumb pitch,” Mayne said. “Mark was ahead on the count, 0-1, but he went and threw a fastball right down the middle anyway, and that was the game.”

If Mayne sounds a bit flustered, that’s because he is. Orange Coast (2-5) is off to its worst conference start in Mayne’s nine-year tenure at the school, and the Pirates’ latest loss could have been averted if they could have come up with a few clutch hits.

Orange Coast cut a 4-1 Cerritos lead to 4-3 with two runs in the sixth inning, but the sixth inning was still a disappointment for the Pirates. After Steve Kraiss’ second of three hits on the day drove in a run to make it 4-3, winning pitcher Al Osuna (4-1) walked two batters to load the bases.

Cerritos Coach George Horton then pulled Osuna and brought in right-hander Dave Serrano, who promptly struck out Paul Ellison to end the threat.

Then, in the seventh, an error by Cerritos third baseman Craig Worthington and a walk by Serrano gave Gene Roumimper a chance to get a big hit, but Roumimper, too, struck out. Serrano capped an impressive, 3-inning performance by pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth for a save.

Cerritos (7-0), the top-ranked team in Southern California, did not play one of its best games. The Falcons, besides their three-run first inning, were lackluster on offense and left-hander Osuna struggled much of the time he was around (5 innings, three runs, six hits). But, as Mayne pointed out, Cerritos does not always have to play at its best to win.

“Cerritos is a notch above everyone in this conference,” he said. “I’d say they even played a below-average game for them today, but they’re still undefeated. They’re really a great team.”

Orange Coast, down 3-0, made it 3-1 in the first when Kraiss hit an Osuna pitch over the right-field fence.

The Falcons came back with an insurance run in the fourth inning that turned out to be crucial. They scored it with a bit of the clutch hitting that eluded Orange Coast.

Bob Esquerra led off with a single the fell in front of Orange Coast center fielder Brett Webber, and he went to second when Webber misplayed the ball. Esquerra then went to third on a wild pitch by Stomp and still no one was out.

Stomp struck out Wilkinson and Quinn Mack, but Kevin Evert, who had three hits, followed with a single to center field and the run was over.

If it hadn’t been for a few mistakes, Stomp (4-2) could have won. He pitched a complete game, struck out seven and allowed seven hits.

Orange Coast is still without shortstop Larry Cratsenberg, who has an injured shoulder. Mayne says until he returns to the lineup, the Pirates will continue to endure losses such as the one against the Falcons.

“This is tough for us, to be losing,” he said. “It’s tougher on the kids than on me. Everyone sees our record in the paper and asks them what’s wrong, and that’s tough to live with.” In other South Coast Conference action:

Cypress 7, Mt. SAC 5--The Chargers used five hits, one walk and two wild pitches to score five runs in the bottom of the fifth and then held on for the come-from-behind win at Cypress. The win keeps the Chargers (6-1, 12-5) one game behind first-place Cerritos in the conference standings.

Tom Chavez and Jim Patterson had two hits and one RBI each for Cypress, and Chris Kocman had an RBI double in the fifth. Robert Goodall (4-0) recorded the win. Rick Davis went the distance for Mt. SAC and took the loss.