COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Long Beach’s 12-Run Fourth Inning Sinks Cypress

Long Beach scored 12 runs in the fourth inning on its way to a 17-9 victory over Cypress in the championship game of the Cypress/Golden West Kiwanis baseball tournament Sunday at Cypress.

Cypress, the defending state champion, had advanced to the title game by defeating Golden West, 3-2, earlier Sunday.

Long Beach led, 2-1, going into the fourth when the Vikings (8-0) used 11 hits to score 12 runs. Long Beach had 19 hits in the game.

Cypress answered back with eight runs in the sixth, keyed by a three-run triple by Charles Gipson, to cut the lead to 14-9. Long Beach added single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth.

Gipson, who was a wide receiver for Fullerton College last fall, had two hits and scored two runs and three RBIs for Cypress. Kevin Clark, Andy Gonzales, Abijah Alastra had two hits each for Cypress (6-3).

Dave Olivas had four hits, including a home run, scored three runs and drove in two and Brad Robinson got three hits, drove in three and scored three runs for Long Beach.

In the championship semifinals:

Cypress 3, Golden West 2--Brian Pickler, the nephew of Cypress Coach Scott Pickler, pitched a four-hitter for the Chargers.

It was the first start of the season for Pickler (1-0), a left-hander, who allowed four singles. He was was an Orange Empire Conference selection as a water polo player last fall.

Jason Hodges had a two-run double in the third inning and Gipson had an RBI single in the fourth for Cypress.

Golden West (3-3-1) scored single runs in the second and eighth.

In the championship game of the Rancho Santiago Lidlifter softball tournament:

College of the Desert 4, Orange Coast 3 (8 innings)--Desert scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth.

OCC had forced a second game by defeating Desert, 4-3, in the championship round of the double-elimination tournament. Shannon Ebert singled to score Kami Bigler in the seventh to break a 3-3 tie for OCC (4-2).