COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Idle Rancho Santiago Wins Conference Title

The Orange Empire Conference baseball title was supposed to be decided Thursday.

First-place Rancho Santiago and second-place Golden West will still meet, but the teams will be playing with nothing on the line.

The title race ended Tuesday afternoon with Rancho Santiago winning it without taking the field.

Golden West was defeated by Orange Coast, 12-7, Tuesday at Golden West.

Rancho Santiago (31-8, 17-5 in conference), which had a bye, has a 2 1/2-game lead with two games left, thus winning its second conference title in three seasons.

“This is very nice that we were able to win it with as young a club as we have,” Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said. “It was our pitching that really did it. We led the conference in ERA (3.38) with a staff that was very inexperienced at the start of the season.”

Although OCC eliminated Golden West from a chance at first, Golden West had already clinched second place and a playoff spot.

The top three teams from the conference will advance to the playoffs, which start May 12.

The good news for OCC is that the Pirates avoided being swept in the four conference games with local rival Golden West.

The Pirates had 16 hits, including three each by Joe Pence, Steve Hernandez and Sid Maldonado.

OCC built an 8-2 lead after three innings, but Golden West rallied to cut the lead to 8-5 in the seventh inning.

OCC (16-19, 9-13) scored four runs in the eighth for a 12-5 lead.

Chris Hutchins was hit by a pitch to start the one-out rally. Pence tripled and scored on a single by Hernandez. Rod McCall tripled to drive in Hernandez, and Maldonado’s single scored McCall.

John Douris (4-4) pitched the first 7 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs, five earned, for the victory. David Turner (4-3) started for Golden West but allowed eight hits and seven runs, five earned, in 2 1/3 innings to take the loss.

Robb Carabba had three hits and Mike Willey and Frank Herman had two hits each for Golden West (25-11-1, 15-8).

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Saddleback 5, Riverside 4--Saddleback (13-20, 6-16) had five consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to score four runs and take a 5-4 lead at Riverside.

Brent Ferguson started the winning rally with a single. Jason Thompson and Ted Savage singled to load the bases. Tony Wren had a two-run double to cut the lead to 4-3 and Neil Carter singled to tie it, 4-4. Brian Hoilman’s sacrifice fly scored Wren with the winning run.

Corey Giuliano (7-5) got the victory, pitching the first 5 1/3 innings. Pat Norville worked the final three innings for the save.

Ben Blomdahl (9-5) pitched nine innings, but took the loss for Riverside (26-15, 11-12).

Fullerton 5, Cypress 3 (11 innings)--Visiting Fullerton (22-13, 12-10) moved within a victory of clinching third place. The teams were tied, 2-2, at the end of nine innings and each scored in the 10th.

In the 11th, Fullerton’s Dave Weckerle doubled and scored on a single by Benny Rodriguez. Rodriguez moved to second on a sacrifice by Willy Speakman and scored on single by Tom Wilson.

Jim Burchit retired Cypress in the 11th for his second save. Tom Kelly (7-3) pitched 10 innings for the victory, and Ken Kendrena (4-1) pitched 10-plus innings to take the loss.

Fullerton had scored in the 10th on an error by Cypress third baseman Doug McConathy. Cypress (22-18, 8-14) tied it in the 10th on a single by Mark Pak and a two-out triple by Terry Tewell.

ORANGE EMPIRE

Conf. Overall College W L T W L T Rancho Santiago 17 5 0 31 8 0 Golden West 15 8 0 25 11 1 Fullerton 12 10 0 22 13 0 Riverside 11 12 0 26 15 0 Cypress 8 14 0 22 18 0 Orange Coast 9 13 0 16 19 0 Saddleback 6 16 0 13 20 0