COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Cypress Climbs Back Into the Race

After the first three weeks of the Orange Empire Conference baseball season, Cypress College appeared to be out of the race.

The Chargers, the defending champions, were in last place with a 1-7 record.

But Cypress is back in the playoff picture at the end of the third round, thanks to an 8-4, 10-inning victory over Riverside Thursday.

Troy Babbitt had a three-run double for Cypress (22-14 and 8-10 in conference play), which has won seven of its past 10 conference games and is in fifth place, only a game out of third.

Rancho Santiago (28-7, 14-4), which was upset by Fullerton, 8-7, Thursday, has a two-game lead over Golden West with six games left.

Fullerton and Riverside are tied for third at 9-9 and Cypress is 8-10.

The top two teams are assured of playoff berths and at least one team will get a wild-card spot because of the strength of the conference.

“We’ve come a long way since the start,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said. “We’ve taken a step or two in the right direction in recent weeks.”

Riverside (24-12, 9-9) built a 4-0 lead thanks in part to four Cypress errors that led to three unearned runs. Cypress then scored four runs in the seventh.

Tom Acuna’s grounder scored Tom Puppe, who opened with a triple. Mark Pak singled and pinch-hitter Larry Perry tripled to score Pak with the second run. Jim Barry followed with an RBI single and took second on a wild pitch.

Doug McConathy singled to score Barry and tie the score at 4-4. McConathy’s single helped ease the pain of his earlier errors.

The 10th-inning winning rally started when Ken Kendrena was hit by a pitch. McConathy then singled to right.

Terry Tewell tried to sacrificed, but his bunt bounced over the head of third baseman Curt Callicott for a single. Babbitt then drove the ball up the alley in right-center to score three. He later scored on a single by Pak.

Sophomore Ken Tolbert (6-2) pitched 10 innings, allowing 12 hits, and had nine strikeouts for the victory.

James Patterson (5-5) pitched into the 10th but took the loss.

In other Orange Empire games:

Orange Coast 9, Saddleback 3--Rod McCall was two for four with three RBIS, including a solo homer in the ninth, to lead Orange Coast (14-17, 7-11). Orange Coast pitcher Tom Irwin (5-3) gave up seven hits, struck out six and walked two for the complete-game victory. Brent Ferguson was two for three for Saddleback (10-18, 4-14).

Fullerton 8, Rancho Santiago 7--Fullerton scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to win. Rancho Santiago, which had a nine-game conference winning streak, remains in first place, two games ahead of Golden West. Rancho Santiago is 28-7, 14-4.

In nonconference baseball:

Cerritos 13, Golden West 7--Cerritos (29-4) got homers from David Main, Scott Mowl, Joe Arredondo and Chris Powell. Jason Kerr (5-1) allowed only two hits in six innings, struck out seven and walked one to pick up the victory. Gerad Cawhorn had two hits and two RBIs for Golden West (22-9-1).