Valley’s Season Ends as Rally Falls Just Short : Orange Coast Drops Monarchs From State Regional Field

Just as it had done all season, the Valley College baseball team came from behind in Thursday’s game against Orange Coast in the first round of the Southern California regional of the junior college state baseball tournament.

This time, however, Valley’s last-ditch effort fell short.

With two out, runners on second and third and three runs already across in the bottom of the ninth inning, Orange Coast reliever Eddie Pierce induced Mike Caputi to ground out to third, securing the Pirates’ 8-6 victory at Valley.

Valley finished its season 29-12-1. Orange Coast (31-10-1) will meet Rancho Santiago, a 15-3 winner Thursday over East Los Angeles, in a second-round game Saturday at Rancho Santiago.

“I’m proud of what we’ve done and the way we battled back after kind of struggling in the middle of the season,” Valley Coach Chris Johnson said. “We knew Orange Coast was a good team, and, unfortunately for us, they proved it today.”

Ryan Thibault, a sophomore left-hander headed to Pepperdine, improved to 10-1 by pitching 6 2/3 innings before giving way to Pierce, who earned his fifth save.

Valley starter Joey Kane also was impressive in his six innings. However, the sophomore left-hander was hurt by Mike Kelly’s two-run double in the second inning that tied the score, 2-2, and Randy Cordova’s two-run homer in the fifth that gave the Pirates a 4-2 lead.

“Every time we scored, it seemed like they answered,” said Caputi, a sophomore outfielder whose solo home run in the sixth pulled the Monarchs to within 4-3. “That’s the sign of a good ballclub.”

In the seventh, Orange Coast loaded the bases when Kane surrendered a single to Scott Talanoa, walked Cordova, then gave up a bunt single to Pierce, who started the game in right field.

Mike Roberts replaced Kane and induced Darrell Conner to hit a ground ball to shortstop Ray Sabado for what appeared to be the start of a certain double play. Sabado, however, committed one of his three errors, bobbling the ball and throwing late to second, which allowed a run to score.

One out later, Kelly hit a sacrifice fly to right that scored Cordova from third to make the score 6-3.