COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Rancho Santiago Regains Top Spot

From Rancho Santiago’s point of view, things are finally in the right order in the Orange Empire Conference baseball race.

Kyle Evans had three hits and drove in three runs and Kirk Irvine pitched a complete game as Rancho Santiago defeated host Fullerton, 8-3, Thursday to move into first place, a half game in front of Cypress.

Rancho Santiago (30-9, 15-6) has three games left and Cypress, which had a bye Thursday, has four remaining.

Cypress will play at Rancho Santiago, which had won five of the last seven conference titles, Tuesday in a game that will go a long way in deciding the conference winner. Cypress has won the other two titles in that seven-year span, including last season.

It was the 11th consecutive conference victory for Rancho Santiago, which was 2-4 and in last place at the end of the first round.

Fullerton (28-12-1, 11-10) fell into fourth place, a half game behind Orange Coast, which beat Golden West, 8-5, also Thursday.

The top two teams from each of the five conferences in Southern California earn automatic berths in the Southern California playoffs. Third- and fourth-place teams are left hoping for one of the six wild-card berths.

The performance of Evans, who also scored three runs, is of little surprise.

Evans leads the conference in hitting at .433 and has also driven in 45 runs. He singled and scored Rancho Santiago’s first run in the fourth and added a two-run double to the center-field fence in the fifth. He scored on a throwing error and Rancho Santiago led, 4-0.

Poncho Ruiz and pinch-hitter Eric Gomez had back-to-back RBI doubles as Fullerton got to Irvine, a sophomore right-hander, for two runs in the seventh.

But Rancho Santiago scored four times in the ninth to go head, 8-2. Chad Henderson started the inning with his second home run. Evans added an RBI single and Jamie Estrada capped the rally with a two-run double to the right-center field fence.

Given the big edge, Irvine (9-3) gave up a run in the ninth on an RBI single by Ruiz. Irvine’s nine victories lead the conference as well as his 105 innings pitched.