Orange County Community College Baseball : Orange Coast Extends Lead With 11-3 Romp

Orange Coast College is turning the South Coast Conference baseball race into one for second place.

The Pirates defeated Rancho Santiago, 11-3, Saturday to increase their led to four games over the second-place Dons with 11 games remaining.

Orange Coast (13-0, 24-4) has won 18 straight games--13 in a row in conference.

This season, the race for second is almost as important as the one for first. The second-place finisher also qualifies for the state tournament, but with a lower seeding.

Rancho Santiago starter Chris Shiflett (5-2) carried a 1-1 tie into the the sixth inning before Orange Coast’s Paul Ellison hit a three-run home run.

Rex Peters opened the sixth with a single to left, and Rob Gibbs followed with an infield single.

Shiflett quickly got ahead of Ellison with two curveballs for called strikes. Shiflett’s mistake with an 0-2 fastball resulted in Ellison’s third home run of the season.

Things didn’t get too much better in the seventh for the Dons.

Mike Sanders took the mound and walked the bases loaded with one out. Duane Madje relieved him and got Ellison to ground into a force play. But freshman Joey James followed with his 13th home run of the season, a three-run shot just inside the foul pole in right field.

James (Newport Harbor High School) has 65 RBIs and is three shy of tying the Orange Coast record of 68 set last season by Gene Roumimper. James is also one home run away from tying Roumimper’s mark of 14.

Longo Garcia (7-1) pitched eight innings for the Pirates, giving up one run on five hits. He also had seven strikeouts.

He worked out of trouble three times by getting Rancho Santiago first baseman Rueben Gonzalez to ground into three double plays.

The only run off Garcia came in the third inning, when Mitch Swalley hit Garcia’s first pitch for a home run.

Rancho Santiago scored twice in the bottom of the ninth off reliever Mike Rishovd. Back-to-back doubles by Brent Reese and Bob Bructo and an RBI single by Chris Chase accounted for the scoring.

The Dons (9-4, 19-6) travel to Cypress Tuesday. Second-place Rancho Santiago leads Cypress by a game. Orange Coast plays Compton at home Tuesday.

In other South Coast Conference action:

Golden West 24, Cypress 11--Keith Kaub was 5 for 6 with two home runs, a double and eight RBIs to lead the Rustlers in Huntington Beach. Kaub’s total of five hits and eight RBIs tied school records. Scott Rath and Gary Renko were 3 for 4, and Eric Shirley was 3 for 6 for Golden West (8-6, 14-10). Mark Baca was 4 for 5 with two doubles, two home runs, and five RBIs for the Chargers (8-5, 22-8).

Golden West is 1 1/2 games out of second.

Fullerton 11, Saddleback 5--The Hornets scored seven runs in the eighth with the help of three Gaucho errors to win in Mission Viejo. The Gauchos (5-9, 13-11) led, 5-4, going into the inning. Jim Bennett picked up the win and Bill Dodd (4-4) took the loss. Mike Alvarez was 3 for 4 and scored three runs for the Hornets (6-7, 12-13). Teammate Ryan DeYoung was 2 for 5 with two runs scored. Dodd was 2 for 4 with a home run and one RBI for Saddleback.