COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Rancho Santiago Wins, With Help From OCC

Rancho Santiago took advantage of five hits and four Orange Coast errors, and gained a 6-3 Orange Empire Conference baseball victory Saturday in Costa Mesa.

The Dons also got solid pitching from starter J.J. Thobe (6-1) and reliever David Goldstein, who got out of a ninth-inning jam to earn a save.

Rancho Santiago led, 6-2, to start the ninth, but Thobe walked Greg Folsom and gave up singles to Justin Halper and Dusty Wathan. Wathan’s single scored Folsom, and Thobe was replaced by Goldstein.

Goldstein, who was the losing pitcher Thursday when OCC won, 6-2, came back strong Saturday. He struck out pinch-hitter Brand Caso looking. T.J. Graber then hit a soft liner back to Goldstein, who threw to first to double off Wathan and end the game. Thobe (6-1) got the victory.

The victory keeps the Dons (19-8, 12-4 in conference) in a first-place tie with Riverside, which defeated Golden West, 5-3, Saturday. Rancho Santiago is at Riverside Tuesday, then plays host to the Tigers on Thursday. Both games start at 2:30 p.m.

Orange Coast (13-10, 7-9) scored in the first inning on an RBI single by Darren Brink, but Rancho Santiago got three runs in the second on a single. Derek Brown and Rene Arias walked and David Gonzalez singled to load the bases with one out in the second. Cory Doll then topped the ball off the plate.

OCC pitcher Duane Page got to the ball but threw slightly off line to catcher Mike Monday. Monday appeared to have Brown blocked off the plate, but the umpire ruled that Brown was safe.

Tony Truel then hit a high chopper that second baseman Daniel Hernandez dropped for an error as another run scored. Jeff Richardson’s sacrifice fly scored the final run of the inning.

Brown had an RBI single in the third as Rancho Santiago took a 4-1 lead. Halper had an RBI single as OCC scored a run in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-2.

Another OCC miscue allowed two runs to score in the seventh. Octavio Medina and Chris Lugo singled to start the inning and moved up when Aaron Butler lined deep to center. Brown then hit a sharp grounder to OCC third baseman Ben Strack, who threw to Monday at home, trapping Medina between bases.

Medina headed back to third, which was a very popular place to be. Lugo had come there from second. Strack and OCC shortstop Graber were also in the area. When Monday made a short throw to the bag, the two OCC infielders moved out of each other’s way, and the ball went into left field, allowing both runs to score.

In other Orange Empire Conference baseball:

Fullerton 14, Cypress 6--Jason Diplock had four hits, including his fourth home run, and Ramon Apodaca had three hits and two RBIs for visiting Fullerton (15-12-1, 8-8), which moved into third place. Cypress is 17-15, 6-12.

Riverside 5, Golden West 3--Visiting Riverside (21-7, 12-4) won its eighth consecutive game and 11th in the last 12. Rob Walker had two hits and an RBI for Golden West (12-14-1, 5-11).

In the Cypress softball tournament:

Cypress Advances--Dena Villasenor pitched a no-hitter and Priscilla Sarmiento tripled and scored in the fifth for host Cypress in a 2-0 winners’ bracket semifinal victory over College of the Canyons. Cypress defeated Los Angeles Pierce, 7-0, in the first round of the double-elimination tournament.

At the Saddleback Pentathlon diving meet:

Saddleback Wins--Kristen Lyons, Alana Kuntz and Wendee Hug helped host Saddleback win the women’s competition. Andrew Tripplett of Orange Coast won the men’s individual title.