COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Rodarte’s Homer Paces Rancho Santiago

Raul Rodarte’s three-run home run in the seventh inning helped Rancho Santiago College to a 7-1 victory over Los Angeles Valley in the first round of the Casey Stengel Tournament Thursday in Santa Ana.

Rancho Santiago held a 3-1 lead before Rodarte, a sophomore transfer from Mt. San Antonio, lined a pitch over the left-field fence for his fifth home run. It was also his third in the last two games.

Paul O’Hearn (4-0) pitched 6 1/3 innings for the victory. O’Hearn was replaced by Scott McCorgary in the seventh with runners on first and second and one out. The runners moved up a base when McCorgary’s pickoff attempt was wild, but he came back to get a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat. McCorgary pitched a scoreless eighth and Jeff Daniel worked a perfect ninth inning as the Dons (11-1) won their eighth consecutive game.

Rancho Santiago had taken a 3-0 lead in the second on a two-run double by Wayne Hefft and an RBI single by Octavio Medina. John Rodriguez had a sacrifice fly in the eighth for Rancho Santiago’s final run.