COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Fullerton Foils Rancho Santiago

Fullerton College, although near the bottom of the Orange Empire Conference baseball standings, continues to haunt first-place Rancho Santiago.

The Hornets scored their second victory over the Dons this season, 4-1, Tuesday at Fullerton.

Fullerton’s Jeff Kafoury squeezed home Andre Robinson in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie.

The Hornets (11-12, 4-7 in conference) added two runs in the seventh to take a 4-1 lead. Each team scored in the first inning.

Rob Williams (2-0) allowed two hits through seven innings for the victory and Scott Myers gave up two hits over the final innings for his second save.

Kent Dowding (3-1) took the loss for Rancho Santiago, which plays host to Fullerton at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Rancho Santiago (18-5, 8-4) has a 1/2-game lead over second-place Orange Coast.

Fullerton had beaten Rancho Santiago, 15-8, in their first meeting. The Hornets also beat Rancho Santiago, which has won three consecutive conference titles, three of four times last season.

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Orange Coast 6, Cypress 4--Justin Halper’s grand slam gave OCC a 5-4 lead in the sixth and Aaron Weiss followed with another home run. Halper’s grand slam was the first for OCC since 1988.

Kyle Wilson (2-3) retired 15 of the final 16 batters to get the victory for OCC (14-9, 7-4), which was coming of a 19-2 loss to Riverside Saturday.

Kevin Clark had a RBI double in the first inning and Greg Tippin hit his seventh home run of the season in the third inning as Cypress opened a 2-0 lead. Clark then hit his conference-leading eighth home run with a man on in the fifth for Cypress (16-11, 6-7).

Saddleback 5, Golden West 4--Visiting Saddleback scored single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth to rally from a two-run deficit.

Neil Garcia’s two-out double scored Cade Gaspar with the winning run in the eighth for Saddleback (15-8, 6-7). Bobby Ray (1-1) got the victory in relief. He entered with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth and retired the next 14 batters.

Wade Jackson had three hits including a double and a triple and Bo Haley had a hit and drove in two runs for Saddleback.

Mike Moutrey had two hits, including a triple, and Phil Ruhl had two hits for Golden West (9-12-1, 3-7-1). Both had an RBI.

In Orange Empire Conference softball:

Fullerton 3, Cypress 0 (8 innings)--Alicia Robles (7-3) pitched a three-hitter for visiting Fullerton (16-7, 6-4). Melissa Graham had an RBI double and Jana Bloomfield had a two-run single for Fullerton in the eighth. The Hornets rallied for three runs after two were out and no one was on.

Cypress (26-10, 8-2) remained in a first-place tie with Orange Coast, which lost to Riverside, 1-0, also Tuesday.

Rancho Santiago 13, Irvine Valley 2 (5 innings, mercy rule)--Jamie Parker pitched a two-hitter with seven strikeouts and scored two runs for Rancho Santiago (12-12, 6-4).

Saddleback 6, Golden West 0--Laura Kesterson pitched a complete game and struck out eight for Saddleback (16-8, 4-6). Angela Wolf went four for four with two RBIs and Shelley Byrd went two for three. Golden West is 5-11 and 2-8.