OCC sweeps Vikings

COSTA MESA — This one was all about cashing in.

The Orange Coast College baseball team took advantage of its opportunity to wrap up the best-of-three Southern California Regional playoff series against Long Beach in two games Saturday.

But the Vikings failed to cash in, then failed some more.

Long Beach (26-20) stranded 16 runners, leaving the bases loaded four times, to allow the Pirates (32-13-1) to prevail, 9-7, at OCC.

The win helped OCC, bidding for its first state championship since 1980, sweep the first-round series and advance to next weekend’s Super Regionals, a four-team, double-elimination tournament at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo that begins Friday.

Trailing, 2-1, against Long Beach sophomore ace right-hander Randy Serrato, the Pirates erupted for eight hits and seven runs in the second inning.

After a groundout opened the inning, Drew Hillman singled and freshman catcher Jourdan Watanabe launched a two-run home run over the left-field fence to give the designated visitors the lead for good.

It was the seventh homer of the year for Watanabe, the second in two days against the Vikings.

Kyle Muhlsteff, Brett Wallach, Ryan Dunn and Ryan Sheeks followed with consecutive singles against Serrato, who came in with a 9-1 record and a 1.79 earned-run average. Serrato had beaten the Pirates earlier this season, allowing just one hit and two unearned runs in 6 2/3 innings in a 3-2 Vikings win on Feb. 3 at Long Beach.

After Chris Fung hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out, OCC leadoff man Cory Olson belted a three-run homer, his team-leading 10th of the season, to right-center field to complete the offensive outburst. Olson’s dinger chased Serrato, who allowed eight runs, all earned, on 12 hits in 2 2/3 .

Serrato was less-than 100% due to cartilage damage in one knee, his coach, Casey Cook, said. But Cook said Serrato’s struggles had less to do with any ailment than with the Pirates’ sizzling bats.

“In a two-game stretch, OCC is the best-hitting team we’ve faced,” Cook said. “I don’t think there are any excuses. [Serrato] got some balls up and they mashed them. Most teams you play at this level, you get the ball up, they get a couple runs. They usually don’t get eight. I think [the Pirates] are swinging it real good right now.”

OCC Coach John Altobelli would not argue with Cook’s assessment of his team, which produced 18 runs on 26 hits in the two-game demolition job. OCC, now hitting .318 as a team with eight starters hitting better than .300, had four homers and two doubles in the series.

“We came out strong,” Altobelli said. “We didn’t score a lot of runs late in the game, but we were still stinging some balls. We were squaring some balls up, so I like the way the offense is going.”

Olson, a first-team All-Orange Empire Conference center fielder headed for UC Irvine, also homered Friday. Olson was three for five Saturday, joining Dunn (two for four with a walk) and Sheeks (two for four) as the only Pirates with multiple hits.

OCC, however, received at least one hit from every spot in the order except the No. 9 hole, filled by Fung, a sophomore left fielder who came in leading the team with a .372 batting average.

“We just hit well today,” Olson said. “We’re swinging it well and when you’re swinging it well, you have confidence. It doesn’t matter who is pitching.”

OCC had just enough pitching, as it turned out, to hold off the Vikings, who had at least one hit in every inning but the first, when a pair of OCC’s four errors helped them score one run.

Pirates starter Matt Hauser, a sophomore out of Corona del Mar High, allowed six hits and four walks before being lifted with one out in the fifth. He gave up three runs, two of which were earned.

“Hauser would get two outs, then have trouble getting the third,” Altobelli said.

Freshman Beau Graham took over for Hauser and allowed two runs in 1 1/3 innings. Ryan Rosenhahn followed and surrendered one run in 1 1/3 innings, before freshman Brett Wallach finished up to earn his 10th save.

Graham was awarded the win, his second in three decisions this season.

Hauser (twice), Graham and Rosenhahn all got the third out of an inning with the bases loaded.

Wallach allowed a ninth-inning run and had runners on first and second when Serrato, the Vikings’ designated hitter, hit into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.

“[Leaving men on base] is the story of our year,” Cook said. “I think we probably have the worst batting average in the nation with the bases loaded. We’ve been doing that all year. We take good at-bats until the bases are loaded, then we pop two up and never cash in.”

Southern California Regional playoffs

First round

Orange Coast 9, Long Beach 7

SCORE BY INNINGS

Hauser, Graham (5), Rosenhahn (6), Wallach (8) and Watanabe; Serrato, McNaught (3), Chipman (5) and Junghanel. W – Graham, 2-1. L – Serrato, 9-2. Sv – Wallach (10). 2B – Junghanel (LB), Wurtz (LB). HR – Watanabe (OCC), Olson (OCC).

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.