Lineup Changes Pay Off, Fullerton Beats Cypress

It took six pitches for Fullerton Coach Nick Fuscardo to see the benefit of altering his batting order for the Hornets’ Orange Empire Conference baseball game against visiting Cypress.

On a full-count pitch, Brandon Carter, who moved from No. 9 to the lead-off spot, pulled a home run well over the right-field fence. Fullerton continued on a roll from there and won, 10-6.

Brian Logan, who moved up to the fourth spot about a week ago, also had a big game. He had a home run, a double and a single for Fullerton (18-15, 4-10). His home run, his eighth this season, came the fourth and gave Fullerton a 9-2 lead.

Dan Gusman hit his sixth home run in the third and Carter’s homer was his fifth. After Logan’s homer, Fullerton coasted until the eighth when Cypress (24-7-1, 7-5) scored four times as Fullerton starter Rick Parmenter (4-2) tired.

Scott Daeley capped the inning with a two-run single but reliever Bob Sunderland got Randy Case to ground out to end the inning.

The ninth started well for Cypress as Craig Kuzmic lined a double to right-center. It was his second double and the fifth hit in as many at bats in the game for Kuzmic, a sophomore catcher.

But Chris Piersoll relieved Sunderland and got the final three outs for his first save.

“I know [Parmenter] wanted to finish,” Fuscardo said, “because he was afraid we wouldn’t hold the lead. [That we did] was kind of a relief because we’ve been finding ways to come from ahead and lose lately.”

In other conference games:

Saddleback 16, Riverside 5--Trailing, 5-1, with only one hit in the game, Saddleback sent 16 batters to the plate in the fifth inning scoring 12 runs on 10 hits. Ryan Ruiz and Jason Radwan hit home runs for the Gauchos (26-5, 9-5) in the inning.

Corrie Willkie had four hits and two runs scored for Saddleback. Teammate Danny Rivas had three hits, three RBIs and three runs scored for the Gauchos. Kyle Kane struck out the first four batters he faced in working two perfect innings of relief for Saddleback.

Rancho Santiago 8, Orange Coast 1--Matt Ward, who on Thursday made an oral commitment to Texas A & M, pitched his fifth consecutive complete game for first-place Rancho Santiago (30-2-1, 13-1), which has a four-game lead with 10 left.

Ward gave up nine hits and struck out four in lowering his earned-run average to 2.48. He has given up one run in each of the five complete games.

In Orange Empire Conference tennis:

Orange Coast 9, Irvine Valley 0--Cami Erickson and Whitney Gillian cruised to straight-set victories in their singles matches against Irvine Valley (7-6, 6-4), then teamed up in doubles to notch another victory as Orange Coast improved to 12-3, 8-2.