Community College Baseball : Orange Coast Rolls Seven in Eighth for 14-12 Win

Dave Staton hit a pair of home runs, including a three-run homer to cap a seven-run eighth inning, to lead Orange Coast College to a 14-12 victory over Rancho Santiago Thursday in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game at Orange Coast.

Rancho Santiago scored four runs in the eighth to take a 12-7 lead before OCC’s rally, which was aided by an error, a bad hop and three walks.

With two on and no out, a line drive to right by Mike Lujan went off the glove of Bob Brucato for a two-base error, allowing a run to score. Richard Gonzales walked the next two hitters to force in a run and cut the lead to 12-9.

Joey James’ line drive toward first baseman Brent Reese took a bad hop and skidded by him for a two-run single to cut the lead to 12-11. Staton, a sophomore designated hitter, followed with his sixth home run. The victory went to Jon Dishon, who pitched the final 1 innings. David Tellers took the loss. In the seventh, James and Staton hit back-to-back home runs to cut Rancho Santiago’s lead to 8-7. It was James’ 10th home run of the season and 29th of his OCC career. James was 2 for 5 with five RBIs and Staton was 3 for 5 with four RBIs.

OCC (9-2, 22-6) swept the home-and-home series this week and moved into a first-place tie with Rancho Santiago (9-2, 19-5) with nine games left.

Dave Kirkpatrick hit a three-run home run to give Rancho Santiago a 6-4 lead in the fifth and Brucato hit a solo home run in the seventh to give the Dons an 8-4 lead.

Riverside City 9, Saddleback 8--Darrell Hogan and Greg Ayers each hit two-run doubles in the ninth for the Tigers (4-7, 10-12) at Riverside. The Gauchos (2-9, 8-15) had led, 8-5, entering the final inning.

Bill Lasher hit two home runs, a three-run shot in the first and a solo shot in the third, for Saddleback. Pat Walker also had two hits for the Gauchos.

In the South Coast Conference:

Fullerton 12, Mt. San Antonio 11--Reggie Brown singled in two runs as the Hornets (14-4, 18-7-2) scored three runs to take the lead at Mt. San Antonio. Brian Coriell (4-1) pitched the final three innings for Fullerton, which remains one game behind Cerritos.

Cerritos 10, Golden West 3--Craig Wilson went 3 for 4 with two doubles and four runs scored, and Rod Sherman had two hits and two stolen bases to lead the first-place Falcons (15-3, 23-4) over the Rustlers (7-11, 11-13) at Golden West. Tom Smythe went 2 for 3 and hit his eighth homer of the season, a solo shot in the sixth, for Golden West.