Pirates clobber Cougars in series opener
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cuesta | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
|
Orange Coast | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | X | 14 | 18 | 0 |
COSTA MESA -- The bats, and the right arm of Jake Martinez took care of business as the Orange Coast College baseball team toppled visiting Cuesta College, 14-1, on Thursday at John Altobelli Park.
Coast (3-4), winners of three straight, used a five-run third before tacking on big runs over their final three innings of at-bats, pounding out 18 hits along the way.
Meanwhile, Pirate starter Jake Martinez pitched his best game thus far, holding the Cougars (2-5) to just one run on three hits, walking two while striking out six. Relievers Landon Veirs and Ryan O'Neill each threw scoreless frames over the last two innings to keep the Cougars' bats quiet down the stretch.
Every OCC batter reached base, including Alan Choo, who went 3-for-6 with a run and four RBI. Tyler Covington added three hits, two runs and an RBI, while Andrew Chorbagian collected a double, triple, one run and two RBI. Liam Stuppy led OCC with three runs scored.
Cuesta scored its lone run in the top of the first before the Pirates responded in the bottom of the second. A two-run double by Choo, an RBI-single by Covington and a run-scoring double by Chorbagian highlighted OCC's five-run second inning and from there, the Pirates never looked back.
In the sixth, after the first two OCC batters were retired, a two-out Covington double was followed by a run-scoring triple by Chorbagian to make it 6-1. Gibson Rath followed with an RBI-single to right and the Pirates began to pull away.
Choo delivered a two-run double in the seventh to make it 9-1 before OCC batted around in the bottom of the eighth to score five more runs.
Game 2 of this three-game series will take place on Friday at John Altobelli Park, beginning at 12 p.m.
