Pirates fight to the finish, but come up short to Dons
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Orange Coast | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 4 |
|
Santa Ana | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | X | 7 | 12 | 1 |
SANTA ANA -- It was a battle all the way to the final pitch of the game, but in the end, the Orange Coast College baseball team came up just one run short on the No. 2-ranked team in the state, falling to Santa Ana College, 7-6, on Thursday at Don Sneddon Field.
The Pirates (11-9, 1-4 in the Orange Empire Conference) jumped out to a 3-0 lead, highlighted by solo home runs from Zach Boynton and Ryan Farias. But, the Dons (18-2-1, 4-1) pushed back and responded with three runs in the bottom of the second to tie things up.
After a Ben Melendrez home run put the Dons in front 4-3 in the fourth, Farias put OCC back in front in the top of the sixth with a two-run single giving Coast a 5-4 lead.
Santa Ana responded in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 5 and regained the lead in the bottom of the seventh, 7-5, thanks to a solo home run by Nikko Paoletto and an RBI-single by Evan Reiter.
Coast put fear in the Dons in the top of the ninth. A one-out hit-by-pitch by Tyler Covington and a two-out single to left by Gibson Rath kept the Pirates' hopes alive. Kael Corridan followed with an RBI-single to left, which scored Covington and moved Rath to second.
Andrew Chorbagian earned a walk to load the bases, bringing up OCC slugger Damian Felix (2-for-5). The freshman first baseman battled SAC reliever Colin Galvin for 10 pitches before finally grounding out to second to end the threat.
Farias led the Pirate offense by going 2-for-4 with a run scored and three RBI. Corridan added two hits, a run and an RBI.
Game 3 of this three-game set takes place at John Altobelli Park on Friday, beginning at 1 p.m.
