COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Saddleback’s Berg, Casas Net Doubles Title

Saddleback’s Erik Berg and Billy Casas won the Orange Empire Conference men’s doubles title in the conference tennis tournament Saturday at Orange Coast.

The pair beat Riverside’s Stefan Chudik and Brian Matek, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

Casas beat Matek, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6, in the singles’ semifinals, before falling to Chudik, 6-1, 2-6, 1-6, in the final. Berg lost to Chudik, 2-6, 4-6, in the semifinals.

In the Orange Empire Conference women’s tennis championships:

Jones wins twice--Orange Coast’s Fiona Jones beat teammate Toowee Cao, 7-6, 6-1, to win the singles title at the Orange Empire Conference women’s tennis championships at Riverside College. Jones also teamed with Cindy Reyes to win the doubles title, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.

In the semifinals, Jones, the tournament’s top-seeded player, beat teammate Cindy Reyes, 7-5, 6-3, and fifth-seeded Cao beat teammate Amy Cook, 6-4, 6-3.

In the South Coast Conference women’s swimming championships:

Golden West wins--The Rustlers won the the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay and three individual events and finished with 778 points. Mt. San Antonio was second with 534.

Belinda Kernkamp won the 100 freestyle (55.13), Kate Kilgallen won the 100 backstroke (1:03.87) and Stephanie Kramer won the 100 breaststroke (1:10.32) for Golden West.

In the South Coast Conference men’s swimming championships:

Golden West finishes second--Matt Braun won the 1,650 freestyle (16:26.56), Chris Koerner won the 100 freestyle (46.79) and Chris Egan was first in the 200 backstroke (1:56.08) for the Rustlers at Long Beach Belmont Plaza.

In the Orange Empire Conference women’s swimming championships:

Orange Coast wins 11th in a row--Orange Coast finished with 863 points in the four-day meet. Saddleback, the host team, was second with 474.5 points.

Debbie Baham won the 100 backstroke Saturday, giving her a team-high 53.50 points. Rancho Santiago’s Heather Burton scored a meet-high 57 points.

In the Orange Empire Conference men’s swimming championships:

Orange Coast wins seventh in a row--Bryce Rittgers of Orange Coast won the 100 freestyle in 46.87 and teammate Chris Andrade won the 200 backstroke in 2:01.20 as the Pirates won their seventh consecutive conference title.

OCC had 836 points and Palomar was second with 690.

Matt Otte was part of OCC’s winning 400 freestyle team. He finished with a meet-high 60 points.

In Orange Empire Conference baseball:

Cypress 7, Orange Coast 6--Israel Gonzalez hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to lead host Cypress to a come-from-behind victory.

Cypress’ Andy Gonzales struck out three, including Chris Yakura and Nick Valencia with runners on first and second in the top of the ninth inning to earn his third save of the season.

Gonzalez had two hits, two runs batted in and scored twice. Valencia had a home run, three RBIs and a run scored for Orange Coast.

Cypress (31-10, 16-5) remained one game in front of second-place Riverside and two ahead of Rancho Santiago.

Orange Coast is 8-26, 3-19.

Riverside 5, Fullerton 2--Sergio Betancourt struck out five and gave up two runs and 11 hits in his second complete game of the season for host Riverside.

Andy Rojo had two hits and two RBIs and Rusty McNamara added two hits and an RBI for Riverside, which remained a game behind conference-leading Cypress.

Rancho Santiago 9, Saddleback 3--Keith Cowley was three for four with two doubles and scored three times and Joe Fraser also had three hits and drove in three for the Dons (31-9, 14-7). Brandon Hoalton improved his season record to 9-2 and his career record at Rancho Santiago to 21-2.