Pirates rally to victory

Barry Faulkner

Though host Orange Coast College took a 3-0 first-inning lead over

Santa Ana in the winner’s bracket semifinal of the Southern

California baseball super regional Saturday, it wasn’t until the

Pirates trailed, 5-3, in the seventh that they had the Dons right

where they wanted them.

“We were up in the first few innings, but the middle innings, we

just get flat,” said OCC sophomore shortstop Matt Cline, who has seen

his team lose early leads and rally late for numerous victories all

season.

Saturday was yet another of those occasions as the Bucs erased a

5-3 deficit to claim an 8-7 win.

The victory advances the Orange Empire Conference co-champions to

today’s final, needing just one win in two chances against Santa Ana,

to advance to the four-team state tournament that begins Friday in

Fresno.

Today’s first game is at 11 a.m. with a second, if necessary, 30

minutes after the first game.

“This time, it took [assistant coach Josh Belovsky] to get us

pumped up,” Cline said. “He got us all in and told us it was OCC

time. And we had them right where we wanted them.”

Cline, the latest Pirate hero in the rotation of standouts who

have shared the spotlight this spring, took the words to heart in the

seventh. His two-out, two-strike double inside third and off diving

Don third basema Michael Forman, drove in two runs, turning a 5-4

deficit into a 6-5 lead on the way to an 8-7 triumph.

But luckily for the Pirates, they didn’t stop there. Cline stole

third and scored on a wild pitch by tiring Santa Ana starter Daniel

Arizmendi, the Orange Empire Pitcher of the Year.

Cline’s run made it 7-5 and the Pirates (28-15) added an insurance

tally that proved vital in the eighth.

Sophomore Luke Beck doubled to start the eighth and moved to third

on a flyout.

Freshman Steven Lajkowicz, who entered the game in the top of the

eighth to play left field -- vacated when Beck came in to close for

his ninth save -- then dropped a successful squeeze bunt to enable

Beck to score to make it 7-5.

Beck, the conference Co-Player of the Year who had allowed just

one earned run in 24 1/3 innings heading into the ninth, got a break

to post the save.

After Beck retired his fourth straight with a strikeout to open

the ninth, he walked two, bringing 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore

first baseman Rick Taloa to the plate representing the tying run.

Taloa, with 18 home runs and 56 RBIs this season, struck out for

the third time to cap an 0-for-4 day.

But Forman singled to load the bases and Jimmy Waniger pulled a

ground ball through the right side for another single. Two runs

scored as right fielder Matt Meadows charged the ball and threw home

too late to nail the runner from second. Meadows’ throw took catcher

Josh Banda about 15 feet up the third-base line, where he knocked it

down on a short-hop, allowing the ball to skip a few feet to his

right.

Freshman Brett Siegmund, a pinch-runner for Forman, who had

stopped at second on the single, then broke for third.

Banda retrieved the ball quickly and threw to third baseman Gary

Gattis, who had plenty of time to apply the tag to a sliding Siegmund

and end the game.

The game-ending 9-2-5 putout also provided the Pirates, bidding

for their first state championship since 1980, a new way to win a

game.

“Actually, we hadn’t won one like that before,” Cline said of the

final play.

OCC jumped on Arizmendi, who entered the game 9-1, for two home

runs in the first. Banda blasted his ninth of the season to

right-center field to gain a share of the team lead with Stephen

Schneider.

After Beck reached on an error, Meadows cleared the fence in

center for a 3-0 cushion.

Santa Ana (33-10) turned two walks and two singles into two runs

in the fifth, then scored two unearned runs in a three-run sixth to

take the lead.

A Santa Ana throwing error opened the door for OCC’s crucial

seventh, as all four runs were unearned.

Mark Haderlein, in relief of starter Kyle Hogue, earned the win

for OCC, improving to 4-0.

OCC, now 10-4 in one-run games this season, including 8-1 in their

last nine, made the most of its six hits. The Pirates left just three

men on base, while Santa Ana stranded eight.

Super regional

Winner’s bracket semifinal

Orange Coast 8, Santa Ana 7

Score by Innings

*--*

SA 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 2 - 7 6 3

OCC 3 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 x - 8 6 1 *--*

Arizmendi, Tyson (7) and Vasquez; Hogue, Haderlein (5), Beck (8)

and Banda. W -- Haderlein, 4-0. L -- Arizmendi, 9-2. Sv -- Beck (9).

2B -- Cline (OCC), Beck (OCC). HR -- Banda (OCC), Meadows (OCC).