OCC Rallies in Ninth to Defeat Saddleback

Orange Coast is not the most talented baseball team in the Orange Empire Conference, but the Pirates are the most dramatic.

OCC, enjoying its strongest season since 1993, rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Saddleback, 9-8, Saturday.

The loss dropped Saddleback (29-12, 14-8 in conference) into second place, half a game behind Cypress.

Orange Coast (25-17, 12-9) moved into fourth place with three games left. The top four teams in the conference will likely receive playoff berths and there is an outside chance the fifth-place team will as well.

“That was awesome,” OCC Coach John Altobelli said. “This really showed the character of this team.”

It was the second time in conference OCC has won in the ninth inning and the third time overall.

For much of the afternoon it looked like no such heroics were needed. Then Saddleback scored five times in the eighth. Chad Concolino tied it, 6-6, with a run-scoring single and Pat Wood put the Gauchos ahead, 8-6, with a two-run single.

But OCC rallied against Saddleback’s Mike Pazzulla, who leads the conference in victories with 10.

Pazzulla, who started and pitched six innings for a victory Tuesday against Riverside, entered in the eighth and got a double play to end an OCC threat.

But in the ninth he struggled with his control and the Gauchos struggled with defense. OCC turned two singles, three walks and two errors into three runs.

Brandon Thompson drove in the first run with a soft single to center that loaded the bases for Jason Reuss, who has three grand slams this season and already had hit his 13th home run earlier in the game.

Reuss walked to force in the tying run. Pazzulla (10-3), who took the loss, was replaced by Joseph Edwards.

Chris Laws hit a line drive toward shortstop Jimmy Luster who knocked it down on a short hop. Luster picked the ball up but his hurried throw to second was wild and Thompson scored the winning run.

“To win a game in the ninth like that,” Reuss said, “this is like the stuff you play out as a kid. This will carry over into practice Monday. We could have to run 100 miles and still be smiling our heads off.”

OCC’s Ryan Clark hit his conference-leading 14th home run.

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Cypress 15, Golden West 6--Corey Sullivan went two for four with three RBIs and Steve Hindman went three for five with a double, triple and an RBI for host Cypress (27-12, 14-7), which leads by a half game with three left. The Chargers play at Orange Coast Tuesday, at Santa Ana Thursday and host Saddleback Saturday.

Reuben Gulledge hit his 13th home run for Golden West (16-23, 6-16).

Riverside 18, Fullerton 5--David Cosato hit a three-run home run in the first inning to help Fullerton take a 5-0 lead, but Riverside starter Rick Sander (8-1) gave up only two more hits until giving way to reliever Craig Harrison, who got the final two outs of the game. Cosato went two for four with three RBIs.