Pirates walk past L.A. Mission, 10-3

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College baseball team didn't need a ton of baseball-to-bat contact on Wednesday as several free baserunners enabled the Pirates to cruise to a 10-3 nonconference win over L.A. Mission College at John Altobelli Park.

An eye-popping TWENTY batters reached base for OCC without the benefit of a base hit (12 walks, five hit batters, two errors and even a dropped third strike), making run-scoring much easier when base hits were occurring.

Owen Wessel went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI and Koby Williams added two hits, two runs and an RBI for OCC (3-4). Zach Leite and Tanner Gerosa each had two RBI, while Sebastian Moore came through with a bloop single that still managed to score three runs.

OCC starter Jack Ross was strong through six innings, holding the Eagles (3-3) to just one unearned run on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Zach DenDekker and Trevor Steele followed and held LAMC to two runs (one earned) on two hits with five strikeouts combined.

L.A. Mission starter Michael Taylor took the loss in spite of early success in Wednesday's game. Coming into to the game with a pair of wins and 15 strikeouts over nine innings of work, the sophomore righty kept Coast off the scoreboard through the first three innings, but unraveled in the fourth, allowing a walk-HBP-walk-walk-walk to start the fourth inning. Gerosa followed with a two-run single and just like that, Taylor's day was finished. He allowed four runs on two hits with five walks and four strikeouts. 

An RBI-single by Williams and a sacrifice fly by Leite brought in two more runs in the fifth and Coast carried a 6-1 advantage after five innings. 

The Eagles made it 6-2 in the top of the seventh, but Coast loaded the bases with just one out. After a shallow fly ball held all of the baserunners, Moore stepped up and placed a blooper in the right spot, allowing Gerosa and Leite to score. When the throw reached second base, Wessel never slowed and came around to score as well, putting OCC up 9-3.

Wessel capped off the scoring with an RBI-double down the left-field line in the eighth, scoring Taylor Takata on the play.

The Pirates will return to John Altobelli Park on Thursday against Southwestern College, beginning at 1 p.m.