Pirates rout Rustlers in five, 12-4

COSTA MESA -- After two games of muffled offense, the Orange Coast College softball team finally found the answers to Golden West's pitching exam and pounded out a 12-4, five-inning win on Friday at the OCC Softball Stadium.

The state's No. 9-ranked Pirates (18-3, 8-1 in the Orange Empire Conference) were held by GWC pitcher Desyree Arizmendi to just three runs on 10 hits over the past two games, but on Friday, but it was a totally different story. Coast scored four runs (three earned) on four hits in just 1 1/3 innings of work against Arizmendi to grab the early lead and never let it go the rest of the game.

After GWC (17-6, 3-3) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, Olivia Pedraza doubled and scored on a GWC fielding error, then after a Jasmyn Morales double put runners on second and third, Kimora Tuipala lined a single to left-center scoring McNair and Morales to put Coast up, 3-2.

A one-out double by McKenzie Koshi ended the Arizmendi's pitching performance. Two batters later, after a Pedraza walk, Morales found the OCC jet stream and launched a three-run home run halfway up the back screen in right, putting the Pirates up, 6-2.

The Rustlers used their speed and ability to make contact and cause havoc to manufacture single runs in the third and fourth innings, trimming the Pirates' advantage to 6-4.

With two outs and nobody on, the game remained close before OCC refused to make the third out. Kelsey McNair got things going with a solo home run to right to make it 7-4 and after a GWC error, the flood gates opened as Coast followed that GWC miscue with five straight hits, including an RBI single by Isabel Lopez, a three-run double by Frida Esters and an RBI-single by Maiah Rodriguez gave Coast the eight-run cushion needed to end the game after a scoreless GWC frame in the fifth.

Coast pounded out 12 runs on 11 hits, including four doubles and a pair of home runs. Morales led the way by going 2-for-3 with three runs and three RBI, while Tuipala added two hits and two RBI. 

The Pirates will return to action on Saturday at Long Beach City College (1 p.m.) in a rainout makeup game, but will return to the OCC Softball Stadium on Monday against Saddleback College, beginning at 2 p.m.