COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Lowly Golden West Plays Spoiler Again, Beats OCC

Golden West, the sixth-place team in the Orange Empire Conference, continued its mastery of the top baseball teams Tuesday, defeating Orange Coast, 11-2, in Costa Mesa.

Golden West had upset conference-leading Rancho Santiago and third-place Saddleback last week.

“The guys are loose now,” Golden West Coach Bert Villarreal said. “We are playing for pride and to be the spoilers. It’s important for us to end on a positive note, especially for the guys coming back.”

Shawn Allbee had little trouble with OCC, pitching an eight-hitter with four strikeouts. Allbee, a freshman left-hander who pitched a no-hitter this season, moved the ball around the strike zone well, getting OCC players to chase several pitches. Allbee (3-8) got 14 outs on fly balls.

Golden West led 5-1 in the seventh when Chris Larson lined a three-run home run over the left-field fence. It was his seventh home run. Joe Fraser and Dave Schultz each had their third home runs for Golden West (13-20, 7-15 in conference).

Golden West’s first two runs came in the third inning when OCC shortstop T.J. Graber made a two-out throwing error with runners on second and third. A throwing error by pitcher Kyle Wilson in the fourth helped Golden West scored three more runs.

OCC had six errors, giving the Pirates a school-record 108 for the season.

The loss dropped Orange Coast (23-16, 13-9) into third place, two games behind Rancho Santiago (30-8, 15-7).

Rancho Santiago, which had a bye Tuesday, holds a 1 1/2-game lead over second-place Saddleback. The Dons play host to Saddleback Thursday.

In other conference games:

Saddleback 14, Fullerton 2--Neil Garcia had three hits, including his school-record 25th double. The Gauchos are 29-11, 14-9.

Ted Wilkes had two doubles and Nathan Malagon, Justin Drizos and Rich Kleckner also had doubles for Saddleback. Kleckner had four hits and scored three runs and Cade Gaspar had two hits, including his fifth home run, and drove in four runs.

Riverside 10, Cypress 6--Bobby Jones hit a one-out grand slam in the ninth for host Riverside (26-14, 12-10), which moved into fourth place. It was Jones’ seventh home run. Cypress (26-15, 12-11) led 6-1 going into the bottom of the eighth but the Tigers got five runs to tie it.