COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Golden West Stops Slide With Victory Over Cypress

Golden West stopped a three-game losing streak with a 9-6 victory over Cypress in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game Thursday at Cypress.

The Rustlers (13-17, 8-10 in conference) scored single runs in the first two innings then added two in the third to build a 4-1 lead.

Brian Mena had a home run (his fifth) in the first inning and finished with three hits and scored two runs for Golden West.

Gerad Cawhorn had two hits, two runs batted in and scored a run, and Ben Mendoza had two hits and two RBIs for the Rustlers. Rob Walker had three hits and an RBI for Golden West.

Jeff Henderson (3-6) pitched 7 2/3 innings for the victory. He allowed nine hits and five runs before being replaced by Derek Ogle. Ogle, usually a starter, allowed two hits and an unearned run in the final 1 1/3 innings for his first save.

Troy Babbitt had three hits and two RBIs and Jason Bates had two hits, drove in two runs and scored another for Cypress.

Todd Blyleven (6-3) pitched into the third inning and took the loss for Cypress, which used six pitchers.

Cypress (24-11, 10-8) fell four games behind first-place Rancho Santiago as the teams completed three of four rounds Thursday. Cypress is at Rancho Santiago to start the final round at noon Saturday.

Golden West moves into a three-way tie for fourth place in the conference with idle Orange and Fullerton, which lost to Rancho Santiago, 9-3.

The top four teams and possibly a fifth will advance to the Southern California playoffs.

In other Orange Empire Conference baseball games:

Rancho Santiago 9, Fullerton 3--Rene Arias had two hits and four RBIs and Robin Lindsey had three hits, including two doubles, for Rancho Santiago (32-7, 14-4) at Fullerton (22-15, 8-10).

David Goldstein (6-1) pitched seven innings, allowing two hits and struck out eight, and J.J. Thobe got his eighth save for Rancho Santiago. Thobe’s save added one more to the school record, which he set last week. Rancho Santiago was coming off a 6-4 loss to Riverside on Tuesday.

Riverside 8, Saddleback 2--Ben Blomdahl pitched his seventh complete game for visiting Riverside (27-10, 11-7), which remains three games behind first-place Rancho Santiago. Blomdahl (10-2) allowed 10 hits and had seven strikeouts.

Buster Nietzke had two hits, including a double, and scored two runs for Saddleback (12-20, 4-14). Brian Walker had two hits and two RBIs for Saddleback. Corey Giulian (1-6) allowed six runs in the first two innings to take the loss.

In Orange Empire Conference men’s tennis:

Orange Coast 9, Cypress 0--Peter Davidson won, 6-1, 6-0, for visiting Orange Coast (9-7, 7-5).