Orange Empire Baseball Race Boils Down to Familiar Scenario

The early shuffling is over, and the Orange Empire Conference baseball race has narrowed to a couple of foes in familiar roles.

Rancho Santiago (19-8) and Riverside (21-7) are tied at 12-4, four games ahead of the rest of the field.

The teams start a home-and-home series today at 2:30 at Riverside. They will be in Santa Ana for a 2:30 p.m. game Thursday.

Rancho Santiago has won the conference title the last two seasons and Riverside finished second each time.

“Obviously, these are very important games for us,” Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said. “But we have a ways to go yet in this race.”

After the series, the teams start the final six-game round of conference play on Saturday.

Riverside comes in batting .314 and the Tigers have gotten 10 or more hits in half of their games.

Rancho Santiago is at the top of the standings because of pitching. Starters Mike Fontana (8-0) and J.J. Thobe (6-1) have been the most consistent one-two punch of any rotation in the conference.

“What we’ve done is eliminate 16 games to start an eight-game race even,” Riverside Coach Dennis Rogers said. “But (the games with Rancho Santiago) are no more important than any other games we have left.”

Key games between the teams is hardly new. Last season, the teams met four times in conference, and then three more times in the regional playoffs. Riverside won the first playoff game, 10-4, but the Dons came back two days later to win, 14-6, forcing a second game, which Riverside won, 10-9, to earn a berth in the State tournament.

The battle for first isn’t the only place there is a tight race. Fullerton (15-12-1) took two from Cypress last week to move into third with an 8-8 record. Orange Coast (13-10) and Saddleback (12-12-1) are tied for fourth at 7-9.

The top two teams will make the playoffs, a third probably will get a berth and a fourth could as well, depending on the teams’ overall records.

Cypress (17-15, 6-12) is in sixth place and Golden West (12-14-1, 5-11) is in seventh.

Just Like Before: Maurie Gerard, the 81-year-old men’s tennis coach, has led Orange Coast to the Orange Empire Conference title. The Pirates clinched the title Monday with a 6-2 victory over Fullerton.

It was the first title for OCC (13-0 in conference) since 1987 and the first for Gerard since 1976. Gerard started as tennis coach at Santa Ana College (now Rancho Santiago) in 1948 and was there until 1957. He was at Orange Coast from 1958-1976 when he retired. He came back as a part-time coach last season. Gerard has a career record of 433-82.

OCC has three singles players--Grant Hughes, Richard Montano and Sean Lucero--who are undefeated in conference this season. The doubles team of Montano and Peter Davidson is also undefeated in conference.

Women’s Tennis: The Orange Empire Conference race will not be decided until April 21. Orange Coast has an 11-1 record and plays at Cypress Tuesday in what should have been the final conference match of the year. Riverside is 11-2.

Riverside was scheduled to play at OCC April 1, but the match was rained out. Because Riverside is on spring break this week and Orange Coast goes on break next week, the match couldn’t be scheduled until April 21.

Men’s Volleyball: Orange Coast, the three-time defending State champion, and Irvine Valley, in its first year, are in a first-place tie for the South Coast Conference title with three matches left.

Irvine Valley gained the tie when the Lasers won Friday at OCC, 11-15, 15-12, 5-15, 15-12, 15-12, to give each team a 10-4 conference mark.

If the teams remain tied the rest of the way, OCC will get the automatic berth to the State tournament because the Pirates won the first match with Irvine Valley in four games.

Irvine Valley would advance to a four-team regional playoff for an at-large berth, April 27-28. The State tournament will be held May 1-2 at Palomar College.