THE COLLEGES : Community College Baseball : Orange Coast Bats Stay Hot During 14-7 Victory

Orange Coast College continued its recent offensive outburst with a 14-7 victory over Fullerton in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game Tuesday at OCC.

The Pirates have scored 82 runs in their past six games, including a 19-18 victory over Cypress April 6, a 15-2 victory over Golden West April 13 and a 19-4 victory over Saddleback last Saturday.

OCC is averaging 8.7 runs a game and one of the main reasons is designated hitter Scott Talanoa. He hit a three-run home run Tuesday to give OCC a 12-7 lead in the seventh. It was Talanoa’s conference-leading 15th home run this season and 12th in the last 18 games.

OCC built a 9-1 lead after three innings, but Fullerton scored two runs in the fourth and four in the fifth to cut the lead to 9-7.

OCC’s seventh-inning rally started when Hector Santa Cruz was hit by a pitch. Craig Nixon singled and the runners moved up on a wild pitch.

Fullerton pitcher Robert Lee then hung a two-ball, two-strike breaking pitch to Talanoa, who drove it well over the left-field fence. OCC also got solo home runs from Mike Van Blaricom and Craig Nixon in the third inning.

“We were trying to pitch to him (Talanoa) carefully,” Fullerton Coach Nick Fuscardo said. “But we just made a bad pitch.”

The victory kept OCC (25-9-1 overall and 12-6) a half game behind conference leader Rancho Santiago, which defeated Golden West, 7-6, Tuesday. Cypress defeated Saddleback, 11-6, Tuesday to remain a game behind Rancho Santiago.

Ryan Thibault (7-1) pitched the final 4 2/3 innings for the victory. Starter Steve Trachsel took the loss for Fullerton (10-21, 5-12).

Rancho Santiago 7, Golden West 6--John McTaggart threw out Mark Magrann at home for the second out in the eighth inning to help host Rancho Santiago hang on to a one-run lead. Conrad Colby singled to score Danny Ontiveros to break a 6-6 tie in the seventh for Rancho Santiago.

Willie Navarrette (8-4) went the distance for Rancho Santiago (23-12, 12-5). Craig Paquette hit a three-run home run in the third for Golden West to tie it, 4-4. It was his ninth home run. McTaggart hit a two-run home run in the fifth as Rancho Santiago took a 6-4 lead. It was McTaggart’s ninth home run. Frank Herman had a two-run double as Golden West tied it, 6-6, in the seventh. Toby Foreman (4-5) took the loss for Golden West (16-12-1, 10-7).

Cypress 11, Saddleback 6--Rich Lodding (7-2) pitched 5 2/3 innings for the victory and Ken Tolbert pitched the final 3 1/3 for his first save for host Cypress (25-12, 11-6). Steve Gill hit a three-run home run in the fourth to give Cypress an 8-1 lead. It was his 12th home run of the season. Jason Friedman hit a two-run home run, his seventh, in the eighth inning for Cypress. Saddleback is 13-13-1, 5-10-1.