Golden West Outlasts Cypress

Golden West dominated host Cypress for seven innings Saturday in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game.

But then the nice, calm contest turned into a wild one and eventually Golden West scored three times in the 10th inning to hang on for a 13-11 victory.

The Rustlers led 7-0 going into the bottom of the eighth behind freshman right-hander Matt Larson, who gave up five hits and had eight strikeouts in the first seven innings.

But Larson gave up consecutive singles to start the eighth, was replaced, and Golden West’s bullpen failed to hold the lead.

Cypress scored five times in the eighth and five more times in the ninth. Josh Snook’s single to right drove home the run that tied it, 10-10, for the Chargers.

But Cypress’ bullpen also struggled and the Rustlers scored their runs in the 10th after the first two batters made outs.

The rally started when Nick German, the No. 9 hitter, and Joe Yagher each singled. Josue Pena doubled in the go-ahead run and Ty Harper singled in two more runs. Harper also had a two-run single in the ninth and finished with four hits and five runs batted in.

Pena added three hits and scored four runs and German also had three hits for Golden West (13-8, 5-4).

Cypress (17-3, 4-3) tried to come back in the 10th. Kevin Snapp hit a home run with one out and Chris Klosterman followed with a single up the middle.

But Mike Shoaf (1-1) got the next two outs to end the game that lasted 4 hours 15 minutes.