COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Cypress Clinches Tie for Conference Baseball Title

Cypress clinched at least a tie for the Orange Empire Conference baseball championship with a 17-4 victory over Golden West Thursday in Huntington Beach.

The victory keeps Cypress (33-10, 18-5 in conference) one game ahead of Riverside with one left. But because Cypress holds a 3-1 advantage over Riverside in head-to-head meetings, the Chargers are assured of being seeded first in the playoffs. Riverside beat Rancho Santiago, 16-4, Thursday.

“This is a tough (conference) to win,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said. “I was telling (assistant coach) Bill (Pinkham) I thought we would battle for third place.”

Cypress led, 5-0, going into the eighth but the Chargers added 12 runs, nine coming after two were out. Andy Gonzales capped the inning with a three-run home run. Jason Hodges had an RBI double and a two-run single also in the eighth for Cypress.

Cypress got a solid pitching performance from starter Aaron France, a sophomore right-hander who has signed to attend Miami next fall. France (10-3) gave up four hits and struck out five in seven innings. France walked three but none after the third inning.

Cypress plays host to Saddleback and Rancho Santiago is at Riverside at noon Saturday in conference-ending games.