COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Rancho Santiago Manages to Halt Cypress Comeback

Cypress got the tying run to third with no outs in the ninth but couldn’t score and Rancho Santiago won, 6-5, in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game Tuesday at Cypress.

It was the sixth consecutive victory for Rancho Santiago (22-8, 10-6), which is tied for first with Cypress (22-7, 9-5).

Cypress’ Keith Ginter opened the ninth with a walk and went to third on Augie Ojeda’s single off reliever Brian Martineau.

But Jeff Pickler popped up for the first out. On the third strike to David Trentine, Ojeda broke for second and started a rundown. Rancho Santiago second baseman David Malls threw to third to get Ginter, who was trying to get back, for the final out.

Jamie Estrada and Keith Cowley hit home runs for Rancho Santiago and Jeremy Booth had two hits and drove in a run for Cypress.

In other conference games:

Saddleback 10, Fullerton 8--Host Fullerton (23-9, 8-8) made seven errors that led to five unearned runs. Justin Greco had three hits and drove in three runs for Saddleback (13-13, 7-7).

Fullerton’s Andy Tellez had five hits, including his conference-leading 11th home run. He also had two doubles among his four hits and drove in four runs.

Orange Coast 6, Riverside 2--Adam Cancellieri had a double and a triple, scored two runs and drove in another for host Orange Coast (16-14, 8-6), which ended a three-game losing streak.

Tom Cerasuolo (4-2) pitched seven innings for the victory and Junior Silva pitched the final two innings for his second save.

Mike Hughey and Geoff Wilson had two hits and drove in a run for OCC.