Community College Baseball : Rancho Santiago Pitchers Get Rest With 15-3 Victory

Rancho Santiago College had little trouble defeating East Los Angeles, 15-3, Thursday in the first round of the Southern California Regional baseball playoffs. The Dons also got a bit of a break.

Rancho Santiago entered the game with two well-used starting pitchers, Jack Bailey and Willie Navarrette. Bailey had pitched 133 1/3 innings and Navarrette 131 1/3 before the playoffs started.

But Bailey made only 68 pitches in six innings Thursday and left with his team leading, 13-3. Bailey will now be available for an inning or two of relief when Navarrette and Rancho Santiago play host to Orange Coast in the second round at 1 p.m. Saturday. OCC defeated Los Angeles Valley, 8-6, Thursday.

OCC and Rancho Santiago, which tied for second in the Orange Empire Conference, split their four previous meetings this season. The winner of Saturday’s game advances to the third round, which starts May 19.

Rancho Santiago also got two confidence-building innings out of reliever Mike Hoelker and one from Jeff Aschoff.

“It was a perfect day for what we needed to get done,” Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said. “It’s what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, Saturday will be tougher.”

Rancho Santiago also was impressive at the plate with 16 hits, including four home runs. Sean Ramos hit his fourth home run of the season, a three-run shot, in the first inning.

East Los Angeles tied it, 3-3, with a run in the second and two in the third, but Rancho Santiago took control after that.

Marty Neff hit a two-run home run in the third to give Rancho Santiago a 5-3 lead. It was his team-leading 12th of the season. Danny Ontiveros and Tim Reynolds had back-to-back RBI doubles and Conrad Colby hit a two-run home run as Rancho Santiago took a 9-3 lead in the fourth. It was Colby’s sixth home run.

Reynolds hit a solo home run, his third, John McTaggart had an RBI double, Neff had an RBI single, and Joey Townsend hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth for Rancho Santiago. McTaggart hit a two-run home run in the seventh for Rancho Santiago’s final two runs. It was his 10th of the season.

In another first-round playoff game:

Orange Coast 8, Los Angeles Valley 6--Ryan Thibault got his 10th victory and Eddie Pierce his fifth save as OCC (31-10-1) won at L.A. Valley. Thibault (10-1) pitched 6 2/3 innings but left with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh and OCC leading, 6-3. Pierce got a grounder to end the seventh and struck out the side in the eighth. He allowed three unearned runs in the ninth inning.

Marty Cordova had two hits, including his fourth home run, and Scott Talanoa added three hits for OCC, which scored two runs each in the second, fifth, seventh and eight innings. L.A. Valley ends the season 28-12-1.