Community college baseball: Pirates stunned after setback

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - The situation appears to be back to square one for the

Orange Coast College baseball team, which has the underachieving tag

creeping on it after a 13-2 Orange Empire Conference loss to visiting

Saddleback Saturday.

Coming off their 9-6 victory over Golden West Tuesday, the Pirates

(14-7, 3-5 in the OEC) snapped a three-game skid and were ready to begin

a fresh start as the first round of conference play ended. But Saturday’s

loss proved to be a definite setback and Coast Coach John Altobelli has

called for gut-check time this weekend.

“As a group, the guys have to be more competitive,” Altobelli said

after a 15-minute postgame meeting with his players. “That’s all I’m

asking: For the guys to go hard and be competitive. And if they can do

that, let the outcome take care of itself. We’re having them do a gut

check this weekend to see if some of these guys want to compete or not.”

Saddleback (19-3, 5-3) was obviously ready to compete Saturday. The

Gauchos racked up 17 hits, including four doubles, two triples and a home

run. And if that wasn’t enough, Saddleback sophomore pitcher Kaleo Lopez

had what his Coach Jack Hodges called, “his best outing of the season.”

Hodges completed seven innings and recorded 10 strikeouts. He had a

no-hitter through five innings, but OCC sophomore Scott Beerer smacked a

home run over right center field on the first pitch of the sixth inning.

Lopez struck out two Pirates in the seventh, but he also allowed

another hit, a home run by sophomore Glenn Hedgpeth.

Hedgpeth sent a 3-1 pitch to the same spot where Beerer got his home

run. Jared Lewis had the third and final hit for OCC. It was a

ground-rule double in the final inning.

“We weren’t very competitive today,” Altobelli said. “I thought we

were playing a lot better as a group (during the Golden West win). We

were swinging a lot better. (Lopez) did a nice job, getting ahead. But we

took way too many fastball strikes today and didn’t swing the bat.

They’re a good team, but I’m not overly impressed with anybody in our

conference. We’re a very average team right now.”

The Pirates will look for redemption when they face the Gauchos again

Tuesday at 2 p.m., at Saddleback.

ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE

Saddleback 13, Orange Coast 2

Saddleback 103 224 100 - 13 17 2

Orange Coast 000 001 100 - 2 3 3

Lopez, Quiroz (8), Mitchell (9) and Behrens, Crouch (8); Azze, Treece

(4), Greco (6), Murdy (6), Lambert (9) and Hanson, Cotton (7).

W - Lopez, 4-0. L - Azze, 4-1. 2B - Cheo (S), Marquez (S), Richards

(S), Lentine (S), Lewis (OCC). 3B - Knell (S), Lucas (S). HR - Cheo (S),

Beerer (OCC), Hedgpeth (OCC).