Pirates edge closer to OEC title with 10-8 win over Chargers

CYPRESS -- You give a good baseball team an extra out and that team will make you pay for that mistake. The Orange Coast College baseball team showed Cypress that very fact on Tuesday as the Pirates took advantage of five Charger errors en route to a 10-8 win to inch themselves closer to the Orange Empire Conference crown.

Leading 2-0, OCC had runners on first and second with one out when a potential double-play grounder was misplayed, putting Coast up 3-0 on the play and miscue kept the inning alive for further damage. Three batters later, with the bases loaded, Cary Arbolida inflicted that very damage, launching a grand slam over the left-field fence, putting the Pirates up 7-0 and knocking out Cypress starter Brett Garcia. 

Coast (17-3-1, 12-1 in the OEC) needed every one of those free runs as it turned out as the Chargers (13-8, 9-4) continued to fight. Fresh off of a seven-run comeback against Fullerton College last week, Cypress used some more late-inning success to get to within a pair of runs in the ninth, but Coast hung on stretched its lead in the OEC up to three games with just five conference contests remaining. The first-place Pirates and second-place Chargers will resume their series on Thursday at Cypress College (2 p.m.) before wrapping up their series on Friday at Wendell Pickens Field, beginning at 12 p.m. (No spectators allowed). 

Arbolida, OCC's top hitter and one of the top hitters in all of California Community College baseball, went 3-for-4 with two runs and four RBI. Entering Thursday's Game 2 against the Chargers, Arbolida is batting .500 (30-for-60) with five doubles, three triples, five home runs and 20 RBI in just 16 games played. Jared Schatz went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI for the Pirates, winners of 12 of their last 14 games. 

Michael Ryhlick pitched five brilliant innings before getting into some trouble in the sixth inning. He finished allowing just four earned runs on four hits with four strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Alex Shadid helped get the Pirates into the ninth inning before Cameron Mahaffy came in to retire the final two batters to collect his second save of the season. In 10 1/3 innings of work, Mahaffy has been lights-out, allowing no earned runs with 15 strikeouts along the way.

After Cypress' four-run sixth inning made it 7-4, the Pirates pushed the lead back up to five with the help of more defensive struggles from the Chargers in the top of the seventh. A wild throw on a ground ball to third plated a pair of Pirate runners to make it 9-4 and a run-scoring double-play grounder in the ninth plated OCC's 10th and final run of the afternoon. Cypress scored a run in the eighth and three more in the ninth before Mahaffy shut the door.