Community College Baseball : Gonzales Pitches Cypress to 4-2 Victory Over OCC

PALM DESERT —  Benny Gonzales pitched a complete-game eight-hitter Sunday to help Cypress College defeat Orange Coast, 4-2, in the College of the Desert baseball tournament.

Cypress was named co-champion of the tournament with OCC when a final game between the teams in the double-elimination tournament was canceled.

Both coaches agreed to share the championship, rather than play another game, which wouldn’t have started until after 7:30 p.m.

Cypress had lost to OCC, 7-5, in a semifinal game Saturday night. Orange Coast, which was undefeated in the tournament until Sunday’s game, could have won the championship outright with a victory.

Gonzales, a freshman right-hander, had nine strikeouts and four walks.

He had little trouble early but got into jams in the eighth and ninth innings but was able to pitch out of both.

Cypress led, 3-1, going into the top of the eighth when OCC rallied. OCC’s Derick Dehdashtian singled in a run to cut the lead to 3-2 with two out. Gonzales then hit Greg O’Halloran to load the bases. But Jason Young grounded into a force play on a 3-1 pitch to end the inning.

Cypress (4-1) took a 4-2 lead when Kevin Clancy hit an inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the eighth. Clancy, a transfer from San Diego State, lined a ball to the wall in right-center field. As he neared third base, Cypress Coach Scott Pickler tried to stop him, but Clancy never looked up and slid into home just ahead of the throw.

OCC (3-1) had runners on first and third with one out in the ninth but Gonzales (1-0) struck out Craig Nixon for the second out and got Mike Misuraca to line to right for the final out.

“Benny really showed me something in the last two innings,” Pickler said.

OCC’s Misuraca (0-1) pitched eight strong innings allowing eight hits in a losing effort. He had seven strikeouts and three walks.

In an earlier COD tournament game:

Cypress 12, Chaffey 5--Jeff Patterson (1-0) pitched eight solid innings and Cypress scored five runs in the sixth to break a 5-5 tie as Cypress advanced to the final. Paul Bunch had four hits and three RBIs and Tim Churchill had three hits, including his first home run of the season, and two RBIs for Cypress. Churchill had nine RBIs in four tournament games.