Baseball: Pirates edge Rustlers in 11

HUNTINGTON BEACH - At last, a new hero for the Orange Coast College

baseball team.

Josh McCanne’s two-out, RBI single in the top of the 11th inning

helped lift the Pirates to a 6-4 Orange Empire Conference win over rival

Golden West Saturday afternoon.

“It was a great team win for us,” OCC Coach John Altobelli said.

“Lately, Scott Beerer has been the guy pitching the big game or driving

in the big run for us, but today we had other people step up and get the

job done, which was nice to see.”

Beerer, a Newport Harbor High product, started on the mound for OCC

(17-6, 7-4 in conference) but was reduced to a designated hitter after

feeling some tightness in his right biceps. He allowed three runs in

two-plus innings.

“It was a pain he hasn’t experienced before, so we took him out,”

Altobelli said. “It will be a week-to-week thing as far as pitching goes,

but he’ll still hit and play right field for us.”

Trailing, 2-1, OCC reliever Brent Erickson took the ball from Beerer

and pitched six-plus solid innings. He kept the Rustlers in check and

allowed the Pirates’ offense grab the lead in the seventh.

“He’s been doing that a lot lately,” Altobelli said of Erickson’s

strong relief work. “He comes in, keeps the ball down and throws strikes,

which is very important in this conference.”

OCC jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Glenn Hedgepath

reached base and advanced to second on a Rustler error. He scored on a

two-out single by McCanne.

GWC quickly answered with three runs in the next two innings, but was

stopped cold by Erickson.

Rustler left-hander Phil Tripoli used smart location and an assortment

of breaking balls to keep the Pirates in check for six innings.

OCC finally responded in the seventh with three runs and took a 4-3

lead with McCanne leading the rally with a key RBI hit.

The Rustlers tied the game in the ninth and had the winning run on

second with one out in the 10th, but winning pitcher Glenn Hedgepath

(5-0) retired the next two batters to get out of the jam.

In the 11th, Jake Garcia reached base on an error and was sacrificed

to second before McCanne drove him home with a line-shot single up the

middle.

McCanne, who finished with four hits and improved his team-leading

batting average to .471, scored on a double to right-center by catcher

Brian Murphy.

The Rustlers (10-15, 2-9) had the leadoff hitter reach base, but

reliever Mark Courvoisier struck out the next batter and induced a 5-4-3

double play to end the game.

The win keeps the Pirates tied for third place with Saddleback, a

half-game behind second-place Riverside (22-3-1, 7-3-1) and two games behind first-place Santa Ana (19-4, 9-2).

“We’re in a good position right now,” Altobelli said. “Obviously,

we’ve got a long way to go and we’ve got the big boys (Santa Ana) coming

up, but our guys are starting to believe we can play well with anyone.”

ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE

Orange Coast 6, Golden West 4

Orange Coast 100 000 300 02 - 6 13 2

Golden West 201 000 001 00 - 4 14 4

Beerer, B. Erickson (3), Hedgepeth (9), Courvoisier (11) and Murphy;

Tripoli, Harkey (7), O’Leary (10), Needham (11) and Saltarelli. W -

Hedgepeth, 5-0 . L - O’Leary. Sv - Courvoisier (1). 2B - Sinner (OCC),

Murphy (OCC). 3B - Plumley (GWC), Donahoe (GWC).