Community College Roundup : El Camino Knocks Out Fullerton

Fullerton College made too many mistakes too early and lost to El Camino, 13-5, in a South Coast Conference baseball game Thursday at Fullerton.

El Camino scored on a wild pitch and a passed ball in the first inning, got two unearned runs in the third inning and added two more runs in the sixth inning.

The loss drops Fullerton (22-6-1, 5-3) out of a second-place tie with El Camino (20-10, 6-2) and two games behind conference-leading Cerritos.

El Camino added another run in the seventh, five in the eighth and one more in the ninth.

Fullerton made three errors, had four wild pitches and had three passed balls in the game.

“When we play poorly it’s tough to beat anybody, especially a good team,” Nick Fuscardo, Fullerton coach, said. “We gave them too much to have a chance to come back.”

Mark Tranberg started for Fullerton but was replaced in the sixth by Jeff Petredes, who pitched into the eighth inning but was roughed up for five runs. Tranberg (4-1) took the loss.

Matt Stine, Fullerton assistant coach, was ejected for arguing ball and strike calls to start the eighth inning. Then Petredes hit leadoff hitter Jamy Villa, and tempers flared, resulting in warnings to each bench.

El Camino got two walks to load the bases and consecutive RBI singles by Adrian Rodriguez, Colin Franker and Jim Alexander to take a 10-0 lead.

Alan Newman replaced Petredes and threw a wild pitch to allow Franker to score. On the same play, Fullerton catcher Greg Gistlinck recovered the ball in time for a play on Franker, but his throw back to the plate was over Newman’s glove and rolled into the dugout, allowing Alexander to score, too.

Fullerton was shut out for eight innings by El Camino starter Lucio Chiadez (5-3) on eight hits.

But in the ninth inning, Fullerton scored its first run on an RBI double by pinch-hitter Jeff Repoz. Scott Einhorn scored Repoz with a single and Rod Klopfer followed with a three-run home run before Emmitt Cohick flied out to end the game.

It was the team-leading eighth home run for Klopfer, who also leads the club with 35 RBIs.

In the Orange Empire Conference:

Cypress 11, Saddleback 2--Tim Churchill extended his school-record hitting streak to 28 games with a two-out infield hit in the eighth inning for host Cypress (23-5, 6-1), which moved into first place, a game ahead of Rancho Santiago. Jeff Patterson (4-1) gave up seven hits in seven innings for the victory. Rod DeYoung had two hits, including a three-run home run; Jason Friedman had three hits and two RBIs; Doug Yates had two hits and two RBIs, and Ken Briggs had two hits for Cypress.

Nick Nikolenko hit a two-run home run for Saddleback (14-16, 2-5).

Orange Coast 6, Rancho Santiago 5 (12 innings)--Mike Misuraca doubled home Craig Nixon with two outs in the bottom of the 12th inning to give Orange Coast (19-12-1) the victory. Misuraca also pitched an eight-hitter, striking out five. He is 2-3. Greg O’Halloran went 3 for 6 with 2 RBIs for Orange Coast. Todd Lloyd went 3 for 5 with an RBI for Rancho Santiago (23-5, 5-2).

In Orange Empire Conference men’s tennis:

Saddleback 7, Orange Coast 2--Russ Decker and Craig O’Shannessy swept their singles sets, then teamed up for a doubles victory, as Saddleback (15-1, 9-0) clinched its 10th consecutive conference title.

Cypress 9, Rancho Santiago 0--John Swaino defeated Thien Dao, 6-1, 6-1, to lead host Cypress (7-9, 4-4).

In Orange Empire Conference women’s tennis:

Cypress 5, Rancho Santiago 4--Tracey Carson and Loretta Fleming defeated Kim Fister and Tina Dudka, 6-2, 6-2, to give Cypress (4-10, 2-6) the victory at Rancho Santiago.