Community College Baseball: OCC opens playoffs against Long Beach

OCC at LBCC

The Orange Coast College baseball team begins defense of its 2014 state championship by meeting Long Beach in a best-of-three Southern California Regional playoff series that begins Friday at 2 p.m. at Long Beach City College.

OCC (21-15) is the No. 10 seed after finishing third in the Orange Empire Conference, which placed seven teams into the 16-team SoCal playoffs.

No. 7-seeded Long Beach (20-18) went 15-6 in the Western State Conference to win the conference title.

OCC won two of three games against the Vikings this season. The Pirates won, 6-5, at Long Beach on Feb. 10, lost, 6-2, at OCC on Feb. 12 and won, 8-1, at Long Beach on Feb. 14.

Game 2 of the series is Saturday at 11 a.m. A third game, if necessary, would follow on Saturday.

OCC is led by sophomore right fielder Tommy Bell, sophomore shortstop Jeff Nellis, sophomore pitchers Art Vidrio and Dominic Purpura, as well as sophomore catcher Jack Kruger.

Bell is batting .331 with 26 runs batted in, while Nellis leads the team with a .343 average, thanks to a 14-game hitting streak during which he has gone 22 for 44. Nellis has 12 RBIs, seven of which have come during the streak.

Vidrio, the state tournament MVP last season, is 7-1 with a 2.96 earned-run average, while Purpura is 3-1 with seven saves and a 2.91 ERA.

Kruger is batting .305 with 18 RBIs.

— From staff reports