OCC Makes it Six in a Row by Defeating Saddleback

Orange Coast, showing the mettle gained from a recent late comeback, beat Saddleback, 7-6, in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game Wednesday at OCC.

Saddleback rallied for two runs in the ninth on a two-out double by Jimmy Luster but reliever Tom Clark got Greg Pines, who had hit a home run earlier, to ground out for the final out.

The victory was the sixth in row for Orange Coast (18-13, 5-6 in conference).

“In the past,” OCC Coach John Altobelli said, “we might have crumbled after that base hit, but the guys are starting to get some confidence.”

The improved outlook started about two weeks ago for Orange Coast. The Pirates beat Santa Ana in a conference game just before spring break then won four times at the Visalia tournament, including beating host College of the Sequoias, 6-5, scoring four runs in the ninth.

“We really swung the bats in that inning and the guys have built on it,” Altobelli said.

Jason Reuss had three hits, including his seventh home run, and drove in three and Chris Laws had a double and a home run for OCC.

Mike Carey (5-2) gave up five hits and three runs in seven innings to get the victory.

Jason Marian hit his ninth home run for Saddleback (22-10, 7-6).

Wet grounds forced Riverside’s game at Fullerton to be postponed until 2 p.m. Friday and Golden West’s game at Cypress to be pushed back to 2 p.m. Wednesday.