COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASEBALL / SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PLAYOFFS : OCC Starts Fast, but Fizzles in Loss

As the Orange Coast baseball team’s offense was vanishing in the final innings, San Bernardino Valley’s was just getting started in a Southern California playoff game Saturday in Costa Mesa.

San Bernardino Valley scored two runs each in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to rally for an 11-7 victory. OCC was shut out in the last four innings.

The Indians (31-10) took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series that continues at 11 a.m. today at OCC. If OCC (24-19) wins the game, a second will follow 30 minutes later.

San Bernardino Valley scored four times in the second to take a 4-0 lead, but OCC came back with five in the third.

The Pirates added two more in the fifth to build a 7-5 lead, but starter Kyle Wilson, who had 12 strikeouts, and reliever Ralph Lopez failed to hold it.

A throwing error and a wild pitch allowed San Bernardino to score twice in the seventh, tying the score, 7-7.

With one out, Wilson gave up two singles and a walk in the eighth to load the bases. He was replaced by Lopez, who gave up a bloop two-run single to Brett Thomas that gave the Indians a 9-7 lead.

Brian Sosa allowed a hit and no runs during the final two innings for his fifth save. Jason Manus (6-1) pitched 4 1/3 innings of relief for the victory.

Jason Parsons hit a two-run home run, Paul McDaniels had a run-scoring triple, Curtis Bruce had an RBI single, and Aaron Weiss drove in another run with a groundout as OCC scored five runs in the third.

In other playoff games:

Rancho Santiago 6, Palomar 0--Sophomore Ryan Filbeck pitched a five-hitter with seven strikeouts for host Rancho Santiago (34-8). It was the first shutout for Filbeck (6-1). Matt Kastelic had three hits, drove in two runs and scored two more for the Dons. He had a two-run single in the second to put Rancho Santiago ahead, 3-0.

Derek Brown added a two-run single in the seventh to drive in the final two runs. Darren Troilo had two hits and drove in a run and Tony Truel added two hits for Rancho Santiago, which leads the best-of-three series, 1-0. The teams play at 11 a.m. today at Rancho Santiago.

Saddleback 9, San Diego Mesa 2--Center fielder Mitchell Pang broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI single in the sixth for visiting Saddleback. In the bottom of the inning, he went above the fence to take away a potential home run. Neil Garcia had three hits, including his second home run, and Justin Drizos had two hits for Saddleback.

Garcia and Drizos are tied for Saddleback’s single-season hits mark with 61. Craig Ainsworth (7-2) pitched six-plus innings for the victory. Dennis Crine worked the final three innings for his second save.

Mt. San Antonio 11, Cypress 5--Shawn Wooten pitched six innings for the victory and had three hits, including his 14th home run, for host Mt. San Antonio (30-9). Kevin Clark had three hits, including his 27th double of the season, which tied the Cypress single-season mark set in 1990 by Troy Babbitt.