Four Pirates earn first-team honors

After helping the Orange Coast College baseball team to a second place finish in the Orange Empire Conference, four Pirate players earned first-team honors on the All-Orange Empire Conference team, as selected by the coaches from each school.

Freshman third baseman Drew Hillman, freshman catcher Jourdan Watanabe, sophomore centerfielder Cory Olson and sophomore pitcher Brandon Dixon all earned first-team honors.

No OCC player received a spot on the second team.

Hillman hit .354 in conference for the Pirates and led all OEC hitters with 27 RBIs. He finished the regular season batting .368 with three home runs and a team-leading 41 RBIs.

Watanabe hit .338 in conference with three home runs and 20 RBIs and was a mainstay behind the plate for the Pirates. Overall, he is batting .353 and is second on the team in home runs (five) and third in RBIs (33).

Olson, who has signed to play for UC Irvine next year, moved to the top of the lineup from the No. 3 spot and his production continued to roll along for the Pirates. He batted .333 with four home runs, 16 RBIs and was a perfect nine for nine in stolen bases in conference. Overall, he’s batting .347 with a team-best eight home runs, 39 RBIs and a team-best 18 for 18 in stolen bases.

Dixon came to Orange Coast from Cypress College and the lefty has made the most of his transfer, posting a 9-4 record with a 2.81 ERA. He went 5-4 in conference with a 3.86 ERA. His 102 1/3 innings pitched are the third-most in the state.

Dixon’s 2.81 ERA and 72 strikeouts were second-best among all conference pitchers.

Fullerton’s Mitch Levier and Golden West’s Billy Nowlin were selected as Co-Players of the Year. Kyle Mertins of Santa Ana College was named Pitcher of the Year and Coach of the Year went to Santa Ana’s Don Sneddon.

The Dons won the Orange Empire Conference title.

Orange Coast will play host to Long Beach City in the Southern California Regional playoffs Friday at 2 p.m.

— From staff reports