McNair magic! Pirates edge Hornets, 3-2

COSTA MESA -- It took a little bit of Pirate magic at the plate, but in the end the Orange Coast College softball team pulled out a 3-2 win over visiting Fullerton in Game 1 of the Southern California Super Regional Playoffs on Friday at the OCC Softball Stadium.

With the win, the top-seeded Pirates (31-9) take a 1-0 lead in this best-of-three series with the No. 9-seeded Hornets. (19-22). Game 2 takes place on Saturday at 12 p.m., with Game 3 (if necessary) immediately to follow.

In the bottom of the seventh, McKenzie Koshi singled with one out and then used aggressive baserunning (twice) to find her way home with the winning run. The sophomore second baseman anticipated a ball in the dirt and made her way to second even after the ball was cleanly caught on a one-hop by Fullerton catcher Avery Wiersma. Then, Kelsey McNair stepped up and lined a single to left. Koshi rounded third and headed for home. The throw looked to have her out with plenty to spare, but throw came up short and was misplayed at the plate, allowing Koshi to score the winning run.

Koshi went 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI for OCC, while McNair went 2-for-3 with the game-winning RBI.

Another strong pitching performance was turned in by Pirate freshman Daniella Sanchez (12-1), who went the distance and held the Hornets to two runs on four hits. She managed to work her way around major damage (six walks) and struck out three.

Fullerton's Grace Workman (13-13) also pitched well for the Hornets, allowing three runs on eight hits over 6 2/3 innings with no walks and four strikeouts.

In the bottom of the second inning, Reyna Hernandez doubled with one out and scored on a two-out double to left-center by Koshi, putting Coast up, 1-0. Olivia Pedraza then followed with a run-scoring single to right to plate Koshi for a 2-0 Pirate advantage.

It stayed that way until the top of the fifth when the Hornets found some success against Sanchez. Fullerton had runners on second and third with two outs with their standout hitter, Veronica Moore, at the plate. Coast pitched carefully and ended up walking Moore, but the ball got past the Pirate catcher, allowing a run to score to make it 2-1. Jianna Lopez followed with a game-tying, RBI-single to right to even the score at 2-2.

Coast nearly regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth after McNair doubled to right-center with one out, but a Jasmyn Morales line-drive down the first-base line was snagged by a leaping Moore, who doubled-up McNair off of second to end the threat.

Fullerton had a runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the seventh with Lopez up again, but this time, Sanchez coaxed the FC batter into an inning-ending comebacker, keeping the game tied at 2 and setting up OCC's late-game heroics.

The Pirates are now just one win away from advancing to the 3C2A Softball State Championship tournament for the first time since 1993.