Community College Roundup : Buccheri Sets Stolen Base Record as Golden West Wins to Stay in Race

James Buccheri completed his chase of the Orange County stolen base record Saturday, but his Golden West College team is still in the middle of another chase.

Buccheri stole two bases as Golden West defeated Fullerton, 7-5, Saturday in a South Coast Conference baseball game at Golden West.

Buccheri has 43 stolen bases for the season. He had started the day tied with Bobby Smith, who had 41 steals at Orange Coast in 1978. The record-breaking steal occurred in the fifth inning as he beat a pitchout. Buccheri has been caught once this season.

The victory keeps Golden West right in the conference race. El Camino (28-13 overall, 13-5 in conference play) is tied with Cerritos (29-10, 13-5) for first place. Mt. San Antonio (26-10, 12-5) is in third, Golden West (23-12, 11-6) is in fourth and Fullerton (27-10-1, 10-7) is fifth with a week left.

The top two teams from the conference will receive bids to the Southern California regional playoffs, and a third team might, also, depending on the decision of the seeding committee. The committee, made up of one representative from each of the five conferences in Southern California, meets next Sunday.

“It seems like every time we play a game now, it’s a big one,” Fred Hoover, Golden West coach, said. “But I think that’s good. It makes the kids play better.”

Golden West opened up a 7-3 lead in the seventh, but Fullerton rallied in the ninth for two runs and had the winning run at the plate.

Reliever Toby Foreman walked pinch-hitter John Connolly to open the ninth. Foreman then got Jeff Repoz to look at a called third strike for the first out. Mike Oziminski bunted for a hit, and Shawn Blankenship walked to load the bases.

Tom Thobe, who threw a complete game to beat Fullerton, 10-6, Wednesday, then replaced Foreman.

Thobe got Scott Einhorn to ground into a force play that drove in a run. Rod Klopfer singled in another run to cut the lead to 7-5, but Emmitt Cohick lined to center for the final out.

Golden West scored twice in the fourth and three times in the fifth to take a 5-1 lead. Craig Paquette had an RBI single and Keith Laszlo singled in two more runs in the fifth inning.

Paquette added another RBI single in the sixth as Golden West scored two more runs.

Ken Hokuf (6-2) pitched the first six innings for the victory, and Mark Kiefer (9-1) took the loss.

In the Orange Empire Conference:

Rancho Santiago 6, Riverside 2--Bobby Hamelin hit his seventh home run in the last seven games for host Rancho Santiago (32-6, 14-3). He leads the state with 24 home runs. Rich Gonzales and Todd Lloyd had three hits and one RBI each and Joey Townsend had two hits and one RBI. Willie Navarrette (7-0) pitched a five-hitter. Riverside is 4-28 and 1-15.

Cypress 8, Citrus 6 (12 innings)--Doug Yates’ pinch-hit double drove in two runs in the ninth to tie the score at 6-6 for visiting Cypress. The Chargers (30-8, 13-4 and a game behind first place Rancho Santiago) scored the winning runs in the 12th. Kenny Briggs doubled and Tim Churchill singled him home and took second on the throw home. Jason Friedman then singled home Churchill. Citrus is 22-16 and 9-7.

Orange Coast 11, Saddleback 5--Derek Dehdashtian hit his 17th home run of the season for host Orange Coast (23-16-1, 8-8) to snap a four-game losing streak. Tom Yanez had a solo home run, Peter McKellar had a three-run double and Darrel Conner had three hits for OCC. Mike Golia pitched a 12-hitter for OCC. Bill Lasher had a three-run home run for Saddleback (16-23, 4-12).

In the Orange Empire Conference men’s tennis championships:

John Swaino of Cypress defeated Craig O’Shannessy of Saddleback, 6-3, 7-6, to win the singles title. Mark Hansen and Ed Peregrino of Saddleback won the doubles title, 7-6, 6-2, over Mike Bennett and Yancey Dodson of Riverside.

In the Orange Empire Conference swimming championships:

Nate Kinney of Orange Coast won the 100-meter freestyle in 47.05 seconds, breaking the conference record of 47.77 and leading the Pirates to the men’s conference title at Saddleback. OCC also won the women’s championship. Kinney was named the outstanding men’s swimmer of the meet. Patti Read shared the women’s honor with Crystal Hollins of Palomar.