Orange Coast’s year comes to a stop

SAN LUIS OBISPO — About midway through Saturday’s game, a freight train creaked to a halt on the tracks just beyond the outfield wall at San Luis Obispo Baseball Stadium.

It was, as it turned out, a scenic metaphor for the Orange Coast College season, which came to an end with an 11-5 loss to Riverside in the first elimination game of the Southern California Super Regional.

The loss, following Friday’s 10-4 opening-round setback to Cypress, made Orange Coast (32-15-1) the first team eliminated from the four-team, double-elimination format.

It also left OCC Coach John Altobelli wondering how a team that produced as many wins as any he has had in his 16-season tenure, could come up so stale just one postseason stop away from the program’s third trip to the four-team state championship tournament that begins Friday at Fresno City College.

The answers were plain to see on the stat sheet, as OCC pitchers surrendered 32 hits and 21 runs (19 earned) in 17 innings, allowing two opponents to hit a combined .438.

OCC hitters were also less than their best, as the Pirates batted a combined .274, a measurable 44-point drop-off from their team average coming in.

“Pitching really struggled this weekend and that has kind of been our focal point,” Altobelli said. “[Pitching, the team entered with a 3.57 earned-run average, best among the four teams in this Super Regional,] got us through a lot of humps early. But we didn’t pitch well at all this weekend. That puts pressure on the offense to do things and a couple guys offensively struggled, as well. It just wasn’t a good weekend, unfortunately.”

As happened Friday, the OCC starter, sophomore ace Brandon Dixon, stumbled out of the gate against Riverside. He surrendered four hits to the first five he faced as Riverside, the reigning state champion, which was swept by its Orange Empire Conference rival in three regular-season meetings, scored three runs in the first.

OCC, the designated visitor, had opened the scoring in the first, as freshman third baseman Drew Hillman doubled with two outs and was driven home on a single by freshman catcher Jourdan Watanabe.

Two singles and a walk led to two more runs off Dixon in the second, forcing Altobelli to call upon sophomore Matt Hauser with two outs in the frame.

Hauser allowed three runs on seven hits in 3 1/3 innings, but a fourth-inning outburst by the Pirates helped keep things close.

Freshman first baseman Austin Elliott opened the OCC fourth with a walk and advanced to second on a passed ball. After a flyout, freshman shortstop Ryan Dunn singled to drive in Elliott.

After Dunn advanced to second on a throwing error by the catcher, freshman right fielder Ryan Sheeks fisted an infield single to the second baseman, then swiped second as the bag was uncovered when the infielders returned the ball to the pitcher.

Sophomore left fielder Chris Fung was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

OCC leadoff man Cory Olson, a two-time first-team all-conference center fielder bound for UC Irvine, bounced a ball to the shortstop, who appeared to have a tailor-made double play. But after tagging second for one out, he threw wide of first, allowing two runs to score on the play.

Sophomore second baseman Wes Kartch followed with an RBI single to bring the Pirates within 6-5.

But Riverside reliever Sean Urena held OCC scoreless the final 5 2/3 innings to end the Pirates’ season.

“I’m proud of this team,” Altobelli said. “These guys were great and they accomplished a lot. And, I’m really looking forward to the guys coming back next year.

“I think we’re going to have a real good team next year.”

Elliott, a product of Corona del Mar High who is among the aforementioned returners, went two for three and scored a run Saturday. He was three for four in the tournament, including a pinch-hit, solo home run Friday.

Dunn was two for four Saturday and three for eight in the tournament, while Kartch was two for five Saturday and four for 10 in the tournament.

Wallach also went three for eight in the tournament, in which Olson was one for 10 and Hillman was one for nine.

Southern California Super

Regional

Elimination Game 1 Riverside 11, Orange Coast 5

SCORE BY INNINGS

Dixon, Hauser (2), Wallach (6), Graham (8) and Watanabe; Hoover, Urena (4) and Neff. W – Urena, 3-1. L – Dixon, 10-5. 2B – Hillman (OCC), Krzysiak (RCC), Dunn (OCC), Holland (RCC), Duran (RCC), Kartch (OCC), Mejia (RCC).

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].