Pirates lose lead in ninth, fall to Vikings

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College baseball team found its home opener anything but cozy as the Pirates fell to visiting Long Beach City College, 12-8 on Saturday at Wendell Pickens Field.

Leading 8-7 in the top of the ninth, the Pirates (4-2) got into trouble near the bottom of the LBCC lineup and the Vikings (2-2) made them pay with the top of their lineup, scoring five times to take the lead for good.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out in the top of the ninth and after a strikeout made it two outs, OCC closer David Longville ran the count full on the No. 9 hitter, Avery Flores. One pitch later, Flores drew the game-tying walk to make it 8-8.

That brought up LBCC's hottest hitter of the day, leadoff man Derrick Garcia, who promptly dropped a double down the right-field line, scoring a pair of runs to make it 10-8. Garcia finished the afternoon 4-for-5 with a home run, three runs scored and four RBI.

Jaime Valle, who went 3-for-6 with a run and four RBI, followed up with a two-run single to center to make it 12-8.

That was enough for Vikings' reliever Nick Wood (1-0), who allowed two runs (one earned) over the final three innings to pick up the win.

The Pirates jumped ahead of the Vikings, 4-0, thanks in large part to some sloppy defense by the guests. Manny Argomaniz tripled and scored on a ground out in the second to make it 1-0 before Coast used three hits and three LBCC errors to score three more times in the third.

But the Vikings crept back into the game, scoring a run in the fourth on a solo home run by Garcia and three more in the fifth to tie things up.

Again, Coast jumped ahead of the Vikings with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. A bases-loaded walk by Andrew Alvarez put put OCC up 5-4 and a one-out squeeze bunt by Zach Nehrir drove in Cody Bruder to make it 6-4.

But Long Beach answered back and grabbed a 7-6 lead in the top of the seventh, thanks to an RBI-double by Valley and back-to-back RBI-singles by Nolan Flashman and Ray Patchen.

Argomaniz, who went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI, tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh with his second triple of the afternoon and he would later score on a fielding error by Patchen, the Vikings' sixth error of the game.

Despite a rough afternoon of defense by Long Beach, the Vikings' bats more than picked up the slack, ripping out 15 hits against a Pirate pitching staff that entered Saturday's game with a 1.67 team ERA.

Daniel Pitts contributed to the Vikings' barrage with four hits and two runs scored, while Patchen finished the game 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Austin Saenz, Danny Jimenez and Christian Fillingame each had two hits and a run scored for the Pirates, who return to action on Tuesday at home against College of the Canyons, beginning at 2 p.m.