Golden West’s Baseball Victories Put a Long Losing Streak in the Past

For those outside the Golden West baseball program, the Rustlers’ 3-2 victory over Riverside last Wednesday seemed a minor occurrence this early in the season.

But for Coach Bert Villarreal and his players, it was a pressure-lifting relief. The victory ended a largely unpublished 20-game losing streak in the Orange Empire Conference.

Golden West lost the final 17 conference games last season and the first three this year.

“We started out well this season [in nonconference games],” Villarreal said. “But once conference started, there was some doubt all over again.”

But Golden West wasn’t satisfied with a single victory last week. The Rustlers then beat Rancho Santiago, 5-3, Thursday.

Golden West stayed the course Saturday against district-rival OCC but had to rally to do it. The Rustlers scored once in the eighth and twice in the ninth to tie it, 5-5.

Then, after giving up three runs in the 12th, Golden West came up with four in the bottom of the inning for the 9-8 victory.

“It just seems like we’re starting to come together,” Villarreal said.

One of the main reasons is the Rustlers’ pitching and the catching of freshman Chad Baum.

Josh LaRocca is 3-1 with a 1.89 earned-run average and Joe Zannitto is 1-0 with four saves in eight games.

Villarreal and pitching coach Fred Hoover are so comfortable with Baum that he’s allowed to call most of the pitches, which is almost unheard of in college baseball these days.

“Chad showed he has the ability to call a good game and he knows the pitchers,” Villarreal said.

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The standings: Cypress (17-5, 5-1) and Fullerton (14-3, 5-1) are tied for first at the end of the first of four rounds in the conference schedule.

Golden West (9-7, 3-3) and Rancho Santiago (14-5, 3-3) are tied for third, Orange Coast (14-4, 2-4) and Riverside (11-6, 2-4) are tied for fifth and Saddleback (9-7, 1-5) is seventh.

Very little should be made of all this considering there are 18 games left in the race and that Rancho Santiago was in last at this time last season but rallied to win the conference by three games.

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Carter’s conclusion: The often-outstanding community college basketball career of Saddleback’s Anthony Carter ended Saturday in the state all-star game, in which he had a couple of spectacular dunks and a reverse layup that left many shaking their heads in amazement.

Earlier in the day, Carter was selected to the all-state team.

Carter, a guard from Atlanta, scored 17 points as Saddleback lost to West Valley, 74-60, in the first round of the state tournament Thursday in San Jose.

He leaves Saddleback as the all-time leading scorer with 1,530 points. Carter said he plans to take his first two recruiting trips to Kansas State and Hawaii.

“I lot of people didn’t think we were going to make it [to the state tournament],” Carter said. “[I’ll always remember] just having a good team and getting this far.”

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Shine on Jamie: Orange Coast’s Jamie Shine, who set the college’s rebounding records for a single-season (372) and career (702), also earned all-state honors.

She finished her career with 1,060 points, which is second best in OCC history.

Matt Ambrose, a sophomore forward at OCC, was an honorable mention all-state pick.

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Women’s tennis: One of the key matches of the second round of the Orange Empire Conference play is at 2 p.m. today when Saddleback visits Fullerton.

Fullerton (6-1, 6-0) holds a 1 1/2-match lead over second-place Saddleback (4-1). Fullerton won the first meeting, 5-4.

The Hornets are led by sophomore Debbie Vonusa, who is 7-0 in singles this season. She was the conference’s singles champion last season.

Vonusa and her freshman sister Lynn are 7-0 as a doubles team.

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Notes

Brian Ricketts, the medalist at the state tournament last year for Cypress, won the individual title at Southern California Intercollegiate golf championship Saturday. Ricketts, playing for Cal State San Bernardino, shot 72-75 to win by two shots on the par-72 south course at Torrey Pines . . . Gil Gonzales set a Cypress record for career free-throw percentage. He made 122 of 141 (86.5%), passing Vince Hizon (1988-90), who made 233 of 270 (86.3%).