Pirates rally late for 9-8 win over Saddleback

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College baseball team snapped its losing skid in dramatic fashion as the Pirates rallied late to stun visiting Saddleback, 9-8, on Thursday at John Altobelli Park.

Zach Dickason's game-winning, RBI-single capped off OCC's two-run, bottom of the ninth inning for the Pirates (15-10, 2-6 in the Orange Empire Conference). Coast took advantage of a costly error by Saddleback third baseman Michael Davinni that extended the ninth for Dickason's heroics to come about. 

Trailing 8-7, in the bottom of the ninth, Kyle Koppelmaa, who had three hits on the afternoon, led off with a hustle double to left, beating out the throw from left fielder Galen Tagupa. Jake Taylor moved Koppelmaa over to third with a sacrifice bunt. However, the next OCC hitter struck out ... one of 16 Ks for Saddleback pitchers in the game. That brought up Alec Gomez, who appeared to hit a game-ending chopper to third, but, the throw was one-hopped and got away, scoring Koppelmaa and sending Gomez to second, tying the game at 8. That set up Dickason's heroics as the freshman outfielder lined a single to left, which scored pinch-runner Owen Wessel from second, giving the Pirates the comeback win.

Chase Rousselo (3-0) pitched up the win after throwing a scoreless ninth. His performance followed scoreless frames from Austin Moreno and Jake Covey which helped keep the Pirates in the game. 

Coast jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Bobcats (18-5, 6-2) through the first three innings, thanks to an RBI-single by Ethan Brand and a two-run, ground-rule double to right off the bat of Jake Taylor.

OCC starter M.J. Gabaldon cruised through the first three innings before losing the strike zone in the fourth. Saddleback took advantage of three walks and a hit batter and scored four times in the fourth with an RBI-single from Makani Tanaka, an RBI-hit from J.C. Allen and a two-run double from Zachary Schwartzberg to jump ahead, 4-3.

A run-scoring, infield single by Gomez in the bottom of the fourth leveled the score at 4, but the Bobcats quickly responded with three runs in the fifth and a run in the sixth to go ahead 8-4.

Coast began to chip away in the bottom of the sixth as Jayden Lyburtus lined a single to center to bring in a run to make it 8-5. In the bottom of the seventh, a two-out, two-run double to right-center brought the Pirates to within a run at 8-7.

Gomez went 2-for-5 with a run and three RBI for the Pirates. Brand added two hits, two runs and an RBI, while Taylor went 2-for-3 with a run and two RBI.

Tanaka came off the bench for the Bobcats and led the offense by going 2-for-3 with a run and three RBI. Saddleback was held to just seven hits, but took advantage of eight walks and four hit batters to make those seven hits count. In fact, of the eight Saddleback baserunners who came around to score, seven reached base without the benefit of a hit.

The Pirates and Bobcats will wrap up their three-game series on Saturday at Saddleback College, beginning at 12 p.m. OCC's next home game will take place on Tuesday against Fullerton College, beginning at 2 p.m.