JC Baseball: Pirates complete sweep
In a game for which a sense of humor was required of both teams, it was Orange Coast College that orchestrated the biggest postgame joke.
The joke in question was at the expense of sophomore second baseman J.T. Navarro, who singled up the middle in the eighth inning to cap the scoring in a 12-3 Pirates victory. The single was also the first of the season for Navarro, who led OCC last season with a .370 batting average and 47 hits. It ended his string of 14 hitless at-bats to open the campaign and prompted him to doff his helmet at first base while smiling to acknowledge the good-natured jeers of his teammates in the dugout.
“I was talking about getting my 600th win Friday and the guys got me the ball that made the last out and they all signed it,” OCC Coach John Altobelli said of his postgame address to his players in shallow right field. “I told them how special it was, that it was already in my cabinet, and it was going to mean a lot to me the rest of my life. So then, I pulled out [Navarro’s] ball [on which sophomore shortstop] Travis Moniot had written ‘First hit in Game No. 5.’ J.T. was laughing and he was a good sport about it.”
It may have been more difficult for Cuesta (2-5) to find any amusement in its third loss to the Pirates in three days. OCC (5-0) now has a 10-game home winning streak against the visitors from San Luis Obispo.
Cuesta has itself to blame as much as the Pirates, however. In addition to four errors, Cuesta pitchers issued 11 walks, hit six batters, committed two balks and threw three wild pitches. Cougars starter Bryce Verplank plunked four straight Pirates and balked in two runs in the first inning.
Of the OCC runners who scored, four reached by being hit by a pitch, four walked and one reached via error. Only three OCC players drove in runs with hits and the Pirates managed just five hits in 31 at-bats on the day (a .161 average).
OCC was three for 18 with runners in scoring position (.167) and was hardly buttoned up in other aspects of the game. Pirates’ pitchers issued seven walks, while OCC fielders committed two errors.
“I’ve always said we’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss,” Altobelli said. “But I told my players, we have a lot of things to clean up and work on. It’s early and I get that, but if we do this in the Orange Empire Conference, we’re going to be on the short end of the stick, so we have to clean it up.”
Starting pitcher Cameron Jabara, a Newport Harbor High product, pocketed the win, despite going just four innings. He allowed four hits and one run to improve to 2-0. He struck out five and walked two.
Alex Lopez and Doug Magee pitched scoreless relief innings for the winners, for whom sophomore center fielder Jacob White drove in two runs.
OCC visits Palomar on Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Nonconference
Orange Coast 12, Cuesta 3
SCORE BY INNINGS
Cuesta 010 001 100 – 3 11 4
OCC 404 001 21x – 12 5 2
Verplank, McCormick (2), Tucker (4), Bolle (7), Lopez (7) and Ryan, Peretti (7), Nagle (8); Jabara, Tomazin (5), Higareda (6), Lopez (8), Magee (9) and Hawkins, Teel (7). W – Jabara, 2-0. L – Verplank, 0-2. 2B – Silva (C), Navigato (C), Keller (OCC), Odgers (OCC).
Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5
