Community College Roundup : Fuscardo Shuffles the Order and It Comes Up Aces for Fullerton, 11-7

Nick Fuscardo, Fullerton College baseball coach, shuffled his batting order Tuesday in hopes of finding some more offense, and it worked.

Phil Diplock, who was moved from the second slot to the fifth, responded with a game-winning home run as Fullerton defeated Golden West, 11-7, in a South Coast Conference baseball game at Golden West.

Diplock hit a three-run home run off losing pitcher Bill Baird (2-2) in the seventh to put Fullerton ahead, 10-7. It was Diplock’s second home run in the last two games and his third of the season.

Mark Kiefer (5-0) pitched 6 innings for the victory. Kiefer was replaced by Jeff Petedes, who was then replaced by Brad Hooper, who worked the final 1 innings for his second save.

Golden West had the bases loaded with two out in the ninth, but Hopper got Craig Paquette to ground into a force play for the final out.

Fullerton trailed, 7-6, in the seventh, but Mike Oziminski singled to left to open the inning. Rod Klopfer was hit by a pitch and Deryk Hudson’s single scored Oziminski to tie the score at 7-7. Diplock’s home run followed.

Fuscardo saw almost immediate results from his changing of the order when Klopfer hit a two-run home run in the first. Klopfer had been hitting sixth all season but was moved to third for this game. It was his fifth home run, tops on the team.

“We just wanted to shake things up a bit,” Fuscardo said. “We needed to get some people in different places to take better advantage of what they can do. It worked for at least one game.”

Scott Einhorn, who was moved from third to sixth, had three hits, including two doubles and an RBI.

Fullerton (16-4-1 overall, 2-2 in league play) had built a 6-2 lead going into the fourth, but Golden West scored 5 runs to take a 7-6 lead.

Dan Villegas had a two-out RBI double for Golden West’s first run in the fourth. Joe Aversa walked and James Buccheri tripled to the fence to score two more.

Mike Huyler hit a ground ball to third, but Hudson misplayed it for an error, allowing Buccheri to score and tie it, 6-6. Golden West (12-7, 3-1) took a 7-6 lead as Huyler later scored on an error by shortstop Shawn Blankenship.

In the Orange Empire Conference:

Rancho Santiago 3, Citrus 2--Rich Gonzales, Mike Gonzales and Nick Santa Cruz had RBI singles for host Rancho Santiago, which scored in the third, fifth and sixth innings. Citrus rallied for two in the eighth, but Steve Watson relieved starter Jack Bailey for the save. Bailey is 3-1. Bobby Hamelin had two hits for Rancho Santiago (18-3, 3-0).

Cypress 11, Orange Coast 10--Cypress led, 10-3, after seven innings but had to hang on for the victory at OCC. Denny Bernie had a three-run double and later scored in the eighth to cut Cypress’ lead to 10-7.

Cypress scored in the ninth on a walk to Doug Yates and a single by Rod DeYoung.

John Kuzmic had a three-run double for OCC in the ninth to cut the lead to 11-10, but Cypress’ Bill Bently struck out pinch-hitter Mike Misuraca for the final out.

Steve Gill, Paul Bunch and Ken Briggs had home runs for Cypress, which has hit 10 in the last 3 games. Gill had three hits, Bunch three RBIs and Briggs had three hits and scored two runs.

In Orange Empire Conference men’s tennis:

Orange Coast 9, Rancho Santiago 0--Eric Rebitzer defeated Omar Sary, 6-3, 6-2, to lead host Orange Coast (14-1, 4-1). Rebitzer is 16-0.

Saddleback 9, Riverside 0--Ed Peregrino and Jamil Atcha remained undefeated for Saddleback (12-1, 6-0), as both won at Riverside. Peregrino defeated Mike Bennett, 6-3, 6-1, and Atcha defeated Mike Dome, 6-2, 6-1.

Cypress 9, Citrus 0--Eric Glade defeated Johan Orest, 6-3, 6-3, in No. 1 singles to lead Cypress (3-7, 2-3) at Cypress.

In South Coast Conference men’s tennis:

Golden West 5, Fullerton 4--Marcelino Rosales and Peter Kelly of Golden West defeated Steve Lord and Ruben Salas, 7-5, 7-5, at No. 1 doubles to decide the match at Fullerton. Golden West is 9-7 and 6-2.

In Orange Empire Conference women’s tennis:

Cypress 6, Citrus 3--Sharon Newkirk defeated Anne LaPorte, 7-6, 6-3, and Tracey Carson defeated Julie Chambers, 6-1, 6-0, for visiting Cypress (4-6, 1-4).