JC baseball: OCC wins slugfest

COSTA MESA - Orange Coast College pitcher Drew Parkin induced a

bases-loaded groundout to earn his eighth save and preserve a wild 12-11

Orange Empire Conference baseball victory over visiting Cypress Thursday.

The Chargers (22-6, 9-6 in conference) erupted for six runs in the first

inning, but OCC (10-18, 4-11) answered quickly.

Ryan France belted a three-run homer and Willie Keller followed with

another dinger to key a five-run first. The hosts then scored four in the

second and another in the third to seize a 10-6 cushion.

Cypress rallied to within 10-9 and, once again, cut the deficit to one,

before Parkin completed two strong innings of relief.

Matt Canada, who relieved starter Jamie Brown in the first, got the

victory, his fourth in five decisions.

Jason Reuss went 4 for 5 with two RBIs and Keller went 2 for 5 to match

France’s three RBIs.

The Chargers outhit the Pirates, 17-14, but stranded 11 runners, to OCC’s

10.

ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE

Orange Coast 12, Cypress 11

Cypress 600 030 101 - 11 17 2

Orange Coast 541 001 10x - 12 14 1

Brown, Canada (1), Greco (5), Parkin (7) and Keller; Estabrook, Barnes

(1), Powell (2), Huggett (3), Luna (7) and Beaudreau, Castlen (4). W -

Canada, 4-1. L - Barnes. Sv - Parkin. 2B - Francisco (C), Davis (C),

Colin (C), Castlen (C). 3B - Anderson (OCC), Reuss (OCC), Caro (OCC). HR

- France (OCC), Keller (OCC).