Community College Baseball Roundup : After a Lineup Shuffle, Error-Free Golden West Beats Cypress

Golden West College’s baseball team was shaken up by Orange Coast last Thursday. Golden West Coach Burt Villarreal responded by shaking up his infield Saturday, and it helped gain a 5-3 victory over Cypress in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game at Cypress.

Golden West was demolished by OCC, 15-2, Thursday as the Rustlers made four infield errors, which led to five unearned runs. After that, Villarreal decided to make a few changes.

Josh Bammer was moved from third to first base, shortstop Craig Paquette moved to third, Robb Carabba moved from second to short and Mike Willey moved to second from the bench.

Golden West (16-11-1 overall and 10-6 in conference) responded with no errors Saturday and is tied with Cypress (24-12, 10-6), a game behind conference-leading Rancho Santiago. Rancho Santiago defeated Riverside, 19-2, also Saturday.

“We had to do something,” Villarreal said. “We needed to shake it up a little bit and give some people a chance that deserved it.”

Golden West starter John Gonzales took a 5-3 lead into the ninth but gave up a lead-off double to Ken Kendrena. Cypress’ Joey Gonzalez hit a sharp grounder between third and short, only to have Paquette dive far to his left, grab the ball, get up and throw out Gonzalez by a step.

Terry Tewell hit a much easier grounder to Paquette for the second out, and Mitch Kaylor lined out to second baseman Willey for the final out.

“I told myself in the last two innings that if anything came my way I was getting dirty,” said Paquette, who played third last season, but switched to shortstop this season.

Gonzales (3-2) allowed nine hits, walked two and struck out two for Golden West. Cypress’ Jeff Patterson (6-2) pitched seven innings in relief to take the loss.

Golden West took a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Paquette singled and Bammer, a freshman from Edison High School, followed with a home run to left, his fourth this season.

Cypress’ Steve Gill walked and later scored by on a single to right by Doug Yates as the Chargers cut the lead to 2-1, also in the first. Gill hit his 12th home run of the season in the fifth to tie it, 2-2.

Golden West broke the tie with two runs in the sixth with the help of an error by Cypress left fielder Bobby Thome. Steve McKowen was on second with one out when Bammer bounced a single over third baseman Brett Gregory’s head. McKowen stopped at third, but the ball went under Thome’s glove and all the way to the wall, allowing McKowen to score and Bammer to reach third.

Cypress then played its infield up and Shelby Hart singled up the middle to score Bammer.

Paquette walked and later scored on a single by Dan Villegas in the eighth.

Cypress rallied a bit in its half of the eighth. Gregory had a two-out double to score Gill who had singled. But pinch-hitter Mike Neal flied out to center with runners on second and third.

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Rancho Santiago 19, Riverside 2--Jack Bailey (9-2) pitched seven innings for the victory as host Rancho Santiago (22-12, 11-5) had 22 hits. Danny Ontiveros and Tim Reynolds had four hits and two RBIs each.

John McTaggart and Marty Neff each hit their eighth home runs of the season for Rancho Santiago. Neff had three hits and McTaggart also had a sacrifice fly. Riverside falls to 6-21-1, 3-12-1.

Orange Coast 19, Saddleback 4--Scott Talanoa hit his conference-leading 14th home run in the first inning for visiting Orange Coast (11-6, 24-9-1). Hector Santa Cruz had three hits, scored a run, and had four RBIs, Eddie Pierce had two hits, scored three runs, and drove in a run for OCC.

Mike Kelly had two hits and scored a run for OCC. John Duris (7-1) pitched a complete game for the victory. Justin Pysar had three hits including a double for Saddleback (13-11-1, 5-8-1).

Long Beach 11, Fullerton 4--Tony Osendorf had four hits including a double for visiting Fullerton (10-20).