VALLEY-AREA BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Brown Pitches Pierce Into State Tournament

Chris Brown scattered nine hits and did not allow a walk to register his first shutout of the season, leading Pierce College to a 1-0 victory over Rancho Santiago in the championship game of the Southern California regional baseball finals Sunday before an overflow crowd at Pierce.

The victory sends the Brahmas (33-6-1) to the state tournament for the first time in school history. Pierce will open play in the four-team, double-elimination tournament on Saturday in Riverside.

Brown, a sophomore right-hander who picked up a playoff win in relief Friday, received plenty of support as Rancho Santiago (30-14) saw its best scoring opportunities erased by the Brahma defense.

In the second inning, right-fielder Joey Arnold threw a one-hop strike to catcher Adam Pearlman to get Steve Thobe, who was trying to score on a fly-ball out. And after the Dons’ Rene Arias opened the bottom of the eighth with a double, Brown fielded a bunt and threw Arias out at third on a close call.

Pierce scored the game’s only run in the sixth. Arnold walked with one out and after Jason Cohen singled, Brian Smith drove in the run with a single off second baseman Octavio Medina’s glove.

In other college baseball games:

Cal Lutheran 10, UC San Diego 0--The Kingsmen took advantage of four errors to jump to a 4-0 first-inning lead and never looked back in routing the Tritons in La Jolla.

The win gave CLU the best-of-five West Regional playoff series, 3-1, and earned the Kingsmen a berth in the NCAA Division III World Series. CLU will face defending champion Southern Maine in the first round of the World Series on Thursday in Battle Creek, Mich.

The Kingsmen (39-4) added to their lead with two runs in the second inning and four in the fourth, then watched their No. 3 starter, junior Mike Winslow, stop UCSD (28-9-1) on three hits.

Jim Fifer led CLU with two hits--including a two-run homer--and three runs batted in. Bob Farber had two hits and two RBIs.

Wake Forest 5, Cal State Northridge 4--Jake Austin’s two-run, two-out single in the ninth inning gave the Deacons the victory in the final game of round-robin play in the Carolina Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The winning rally started innocently when Danny Martz hit a grounder into the hole between third and short. But with shortstop Andy Hodgins breaking toward second in an attempt to pick off baserunner David Hedgecoe, the ball went for a hit.

CSUN’s David Eggert (8-2) jumped ahead of the next batter with two quick strikes, but followed with four consecutive balls, loading the bases for Austin. CSUN (37-14-1) was led by home runs from Scott Mowl, his 13th, and Greg Shepard, his seventh.