JC Baseball: Pirates cash in miscues
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Defensive indifference is a recognized baseball term. But after the events that led to Orange Coast College’s 4-2 victory over visiting Santa Ana on Tuesday, the Dons’ pitching staff may wish to make a case for similar credibility to the notion of defensive injustice.
Two Santa Ana errors led to three unearned runs in the eighth inning to help the Pirates rally in the Orange Empire Conference opener between Southern California powers.
OCC (14-2, 1-0 in conference), ranked No. 2 in SoCal, needed the help as it struggled to break through against three talented pitchers.
Santa Ana starter Nigel Ward allowed just one run in six-plus innings, while relievers Austin Weddle and Gabe Armstrong added to some frustration for the OCC offense.
The Pirates left nine runners on base from the fourth through the eighth innings, seven of those in scoring position.
After J.T. Navarro and Travis Moniot singled to open the OCC seventh, Weddle struck out the side to preserve his team’s 2-1 lead.
But the Pirates finally broke through in the eighth, or rather the Dons (14-3, 0-1), ranked third in SoCal, broke down.
After Weddle walked Ramiro Velasco to open the OCC eighth, Walker Keller beat out a bunt down the third-base line. Nolan Powers followed with a sacrifice-bunt attempt that third baseman Justin Mazzara fielded and threw into Powers as he approached first base. The errant throw sailed into foul territory, allowing two runs to score and Powers to reach second.
With the infield in, Armstrong induced an infield pop for the first out. But Navarro’s sharp ground ball went through shortstop Derek Reilly for the third Santa Ana error, allowing Powers to stroll home from third to double the lead.
After OCC reliever Blair Lewis worked out of his own two-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh, sophomore Ryan Randel threw two scoreless innings to close out the victory.
Santa Ana lowered its team earned-run average from 1.94 to 1.90, the third-best in the state, as the loss was pinned on Weddle, who is now 2-1.
“[Santa Ana] is a good team and [the Dons] can really pitch it,” OCC Coach John Altobelli said. “Their record proves that and their ERA proves that. It definitely wasn’t their pitching that let them down today.”
Santa Ana now has 32 errors to rank No. 56 among 88 teams in the state.
OCC, which came in with 27 errors and committed nine errors in its previous four games, played flawless defense Tuesday.
Powers, playing third base, made a diving stab of a ball to his right, then bounced to his feet to throw out the runner at first in the third inning to highlight the solid defensive performance for the hosts. Powers had six assists in six chances.
After a two-run triple by Nathan Flores put the Dons on top in the fourth inning, OCC answered in the fifth against Ward.
With two outs, Moniot doubled to left-center field. After a wild pitch moved him to third, sophomore center fielder John Balliet blooped a single to shallow left to produce the Pirates’ only run batted in.
Eric Wagaman followed by rocketing a double off the left-field fence, but Ward struck out Daniel Hawkins to end the threat.
Moniot was two for three and Keller was two for four to pace OCC’s seven-hit attack.
“We had some chances to score early, but we just couldn’t put the ball in play,” said Altobelli, who had no qualms about taking advantage of Santa Ana fielding miscues.
“I’ve been on the other end of that plenty of times,” Altobelli said. “Sometimes the baseball gods are with you, and sometimes they are against you. You just have to keep doing a good job of grinding it out.”
OCC visits Santa Ana on Thursday at 2 p.m. The two teams conclude their conference series on Saturday at OCC at noon.
Orange Empire Conference
Orange Coast 4, Santa Ana 2
SCORE BY INNINGS
SAC 000 200 000 – 2 5 3
OCC 000 010 03x – 4 7 0
Ward, Weddle (7), Armstrong (8) and Vasquez; Robiniol, Lewis (7), Randel (8). W – Randel, 2-0. L – Weddle, 2-1. 2B – Mazzara (SA), Rivera (SA), Moniot (OCC), Wagaman (OCC). 3B – Flores (SA).
Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5
