Community College Baseball : MacNeil Helps Rancho Santiago Hold On for a Win Over Cypress

Tim MacNeil turned in his second solid relief performance this season against Cypress College as Rancho Santiago won, 11-10, Tuesday in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game at Rancho Santiago.

MacNeil entered the game in the eighth inning and allowed a two-run single but got a double play to end one threat. MacNeil, a sophomore right-hander, then worked around two hits and a blown double play in the ninth inning to earn his fourth save.

The victory moved Rancho Santiago (27-5, 9-2) into first place, one game ahead of Cypress (25-7, 8-3).

Cypress plays host to Orange Coast and Rancho Santiago is at Citrus today in rain makeups. Then Rancho Santiago plays at Cypress Thursday.

MacNeil had allowed 1 run in 6 innings of relief to pick up the victory when Rancho Santiago defeated Cypress, 12-8, in the first round earlier this season.

Tuesday, MacNeil was tough again after the first hitter he faced. Cypress had runners on second and third and trailed, 11-8, when MacNeil entered to face Steve Gill. Gill bounced a single up the middle to score two runs and cut the lead to 11-10. But MacNeil got Ken Briggs to hit into a double play to end the inning.

Paul Bunch had a leadoff single in the ninth for Cypress. MacNeil got Tim Churchill to ground a ball to third baseman Ed Luna. Luna threw perfectly to second baseman Mike Gonzales for the first out, but Gonzales bobbled the ball, and his throw was late to first.

Jason Friedman followed with an infield hit and Cypress had the trying and go-ahead runs on. But MacNeil got Doug Yates to fly out to right and struck out Bobby Thome to end the game.

“Nothing seems to rattle him,” Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said of MacNeil. “I thought he showed a lot of poise and character out there. He did a solid job again for us in a big game.”

Cypress took a 2-0 lead in the first on a triple by Churchill, who extended his hitting streak to 32 games.

But Rancho Santiago then built a 9-4 lead with an impressive power display.

Mike Gonzales hit a two-run home run, his eighth, in the second to tie it, 2-2. Rich Gonzales then drilled a hanging curveball off loser Jeff Patterson for a three-run home run in the fifth to give Rancho Santiago a 6-2 lead.

Bobby Hamelin hit a three-run home run off loser Patterson (4-1) as Rancho Santiago raised the lead to 9-4 in the sixth inning. Hamelin has 18 home runs this season and is one behind the Orange County record set by Joey James (Orange Coast) in 1986.

Bunch hit a two-run home run for Cypress in the seventh to cut the lead to 9-6.

Rancho Santiago then went ahead, 11-6, in the seventh. Mike Gonzales and Joe Townsend singled and were sacrificed along by Danny Ontiveros. Ed Luna then squeezed, and first baseman Churchill threw late and past catcher Briggs to allow both runners to score.

Cypress rallied in the eighth inning for four runs before MacNeil entered the game.

In another Orange Empire Conference game:

Orange Coast 6, Riverside 4--Mike Guccione (2-1) pitched 6 innings to get the victory and Jim Dedrick pitched the final 2 for his sixth save of the season for visiting Orange Coast (22-13-1, 7-4), which is in third place.

Craig Nixon had three hits; Jason Young had two hits, scored a run and had an RBI; Greg O’Halloran had two hits, and Peter McKeller had an RBI double for OCC. Steve Gafney had a two-run single in the seventh for host Riverside (4-23-1, 1-10).

In the South Coast Conference:

Fullerton 10, Pasadena 7--Deryk Hudson went 3 for 3, scored a run and had an RBI to lead host Fullerton (25-7-1, 8-4). Scott Einhorn had two hits, including a two-run home run in the third inning. Emmitt Cohick was 2 for 3, scored a run and had 3 RBIs for Fullerton, which is tied with Cerritos in second place, two games behind first-place El Camino. El Camino defeated Compton, 11-3, on Tuesday. David Wackerman (2-2) pitched two innings in relief to get the victory. Lamar Fuller hit two home runs for Pasadena.

Long Beach 8, Golden West 5--Terry Reichert was 4 for 4 with 3 RBIs, including a two-run double in the eighth inning, for host Golden West (19-11, 7-5), which lost to Long Beach (13-11, 7-5) for the second time this season.