SANTA BARBARA -- The Orange Coast College baseball team just refuses to go away and now, the Pirates will head to Fresno for the State Final Four after topping Santa Barbara City College, 10-2, on Sunday in the rubber game of their three-game series at Pershing Park.
The win sends the 10th-seeded Pirates (27-17) back to the Final Four for the second straight season. Last year, Coast rolled through the playoff competition, winning nine straight games (15 in a row overall) en route to a state and national championship.
This year, the pesky Pirates, void of 16 standout players from last year's powerhouse, pulled off three straight road series upsets. After topping No. 7 Long Beach in two straight, Coast avoided elimination twice against No. 8 Glendale and No. 3 SBCC, winning back-to-back games each time to keep the season alive.
"You can't ask for a better team effort," OCC head coach John Altobelli said. "We had a lot of guys stepping up, putting the ball in play, getting the little runs here and there, playing good defense and obviously, our starting pitching was awesome. Coming up here against these guys, with how hot they were and having to two two in a row makes it special."
OCC dropped the opening game to the Vaqueros, 3-0, on Friday, but evened the series at a game apiece with a 5-2 win on Saturday, setting up Sunday's winner-take-all matchup.
Much like the series-clincher against Glendale a week ago, the Pirates turned a close game into a rout with big, five-run inning late in the ballgame.
Santa Barbara (33-11) tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the fifth before Coast responded loudly in the top of the sixth.
With one out, Jack Kruger walked, advanced to second on a single by Stephen Corona and scored on an RBI-single by James McLellan, putting Coast ahead, 2-1. Stefan Panayiotou followed with an RBI-double down the right-field line to make it 3-1, knocking out SBCC starter Lucas Jacobsen (8-4).
Nick Grimes walked to load the bases and Robert Longtree followed with a grounder to second, but the Vaqueros threw the ball low to the plate, allowing McLellan to score to make it, 4-1. From there, an RBI-hit-by-pitch by Jeff Nellis and an RBI-single by Chaneng Varela capped off a five-run sixth, putting the Pirates ahead for good.
Corona (3-1) picked up the win for Coast, allowing just one unearned run over five innings with no walks and and three strikeouts. Reliever Scott Serigstad picked up his third save after allowing one run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts over the final four innings.
Showing the entire team effort it took to win this weekend's Sectional, Coast had six players score runs, nine players with at least one hit and seven players with at least one RBI.
Nellis, Varela, McLellan and Panayiotou each had three hits and the foursome combined for five runs and six RBI.
The Pirates will open up the Final Four with an old familiar opponent -- San Joaquin Delta -- on Saturday, beginning at 12 p.m. The Mustangs (39-5), the top seed from the north, faced OCC for the state title in 2009 and again in 2014, with the Pirates winning both times. Coast will be shooting for its sixth state baseball championship (1956, 1960, 1980, 2009, 2014).
In the other Final Four matchup, Palomar College (36-6), the No. 1 seed out of the south, will take on north's No. 2 seed and tourney host Fresno City College (35-9) on Saturday at 6 p.m.