Baseball: Pirates sweep to repeat state title
FRESNO — One day after Scott Serigstad was a groomsman, the Orange Coast College sophomore became a championship ring bearer by pitching six sterling relief innings to lead the Pirates to a 9-4 victory over San Joaquin Delta at Fresno City College.
The victory gave OCC (30-17) a three-game sweep of the California Community College Athletic Assn. state tournament for the second straight season.
Serigstad left the team after Saturday’s opening-round win to participate in his older sister Michelle’s wedding in Tustin on Sunday. He drove to Fresno early Monday, arrived an hour before the 11 a.m. first pitch, then entered the game in the third inning with the Pirates trailing, 2-0, with runners on first and second with no outs.
The right-hander, a bounce-back from Grand Canyon University who lost his spot in the starting rotation earlier this season, allowed one hit and no runs, while striking out eight to earn the victory and improve to 7-3. In 23 postseason innings, spanning six relief appearances, Serigstad allowed eight hits and only one earned run (an 0.39 earned-run average), while fanning 25.
“Unbelievable,” OCC sophomore pitcher and state tournament Co-MVP Dominic Purpura said of Serigstad’s dramatic return on Monday. “Scotty wasn’t here [Sunday], but he came back today. Literally when he showed up, we knew he was going to have the team on his back today, and he did. He was in there before we got the [eight runs in the fourth to erase the two-run deficit]. He was just phenomenal. Phenomenal.”
Freshman third baseman Nick Grimes drove in two runs and was one of three Pirates to go two for four to lead the typically balanced 10-hit attack. His two-run single with the bases loaded and no outs in the huge fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie.
Freshman first baseman J.T. McLellan singled in the first OCC run and later doubled to finish two for four with two runs and one RBI.
OCC pulled even when freshman left fielder Stefan Panayiotou walked to force in a run.
Sophomore starting pitcher and designated hitter Stephen Corona was also two for four with a run, but faltered on the mound. In just his sixth start of the season and his seventh pitching appearance, he surrendered five hits and two runs, before being lifted after the first two Mustangs hitters reached in the third inning.
When Serigstad worked out of that third-inning jam and then buzzed through a lineup that hit .375 and scored 27 runs in two elimination-game wins after falling, 3-0, to OCC in the opening round, the Pirates rode their big inning to claim their third state crown in seven seasons, the sixth in program history. The six championship rings, three under Coach John Altobelli, move OCC into sole possession of No. 2 on the all-time list behind Cerritos, which has nine.
It was the second straight three-game sweep through the state final four for OCC, which is 18-2 in the last two postseasons. But this OCC team, which lost six of its final eight regular-season games and finished third in the Orange Empire Conference before being seeded No. 10 in the SoCal playoffs, survived four elimination games and long odds to complete the storybook finish.
The Pirates, who outscored opponents, 17-4, in Fresno, ruined potential national championships bids by Delta (41-7) and Palomar (37-8). Delta, the No. 1 seed in the Northern California region, had been ranked No. 1 in the nation most of the season after beginning the season 27-0. OCC has now beaten the Mustangs five straight times in the state tournament, including the last two title games.
Palomar, which OCC topped, 5-0, to extend its state tournament scoreless innings streak to 25 in the winner’s bracket semifinal on Sunday, was the No. 1 seed in the Southern California regional playoffs.
“We had to go through the best and we beat the best,” Altobelli said. “When we look back at this season and what this team did, it’s going to be something you shake your head about. This is going to be a team that, for as long as I’m coaching, I’m going to always talk to my players about. It’s just amazing.”
OCC sent 12 players on to Division I programs after last season’s 36-9 campaign that ended on a 15-game winning streak, including an unprecedented 9-0 postseason run. This season’s team, with only one full-time returning starter in the lineup to go with returning pitching standouts Art Vidrio and Purpura, has only one player committed to a Division I program at this point [sophomore right fielder Tommy Bell is bound for New Mexico State].
“It’s a special group and it’s really incredible,” said Kruger, who shared state tournament MVP laurels after going one for four with one RBI and one run Monday. He was four for eight with two RBIs and two runs in three tournament games. “Everyone thought we were the underdogs and I don’t think that there was a point all tournament that we thought we were underdogs. Every single person on this team expected us to run the table, get three wins and win the whole thing. Everybody else didn’t really seem to think that. But we knew it the whole time.”
Bell was one for two with an RBI and one run Monday. The 2014 all-state performer finished with a team-best 31 RBIs to give him 70 for his career.
Sophomore second baseman Chaneng Varela, who like McLellan and Kruger made outstanding defensive plays Monday, had one hit and one RBI, as did sophomore returner Robert Longtree, a center fielder who was one for three with one RBI and one run scored.
Longtree and Kruger had bunt singles in the six-hit fourth inning for OCC, which benefited from three Delta errors that produced two unearned runs. The Mustangs, for whom starter Jacob Rosales absorbed the loss in his first start and first decision of the season, used three pitchers who combined to walk two and hit two batters to add to OCC’s opportunistic offense.
Kruger, McLellan (four for nine in Fresno), Grimes (four for 10), Varela (three for 12), and Panayiotou each drove in two runs in the final three wins.
Longtree (two for eight), who started most of the last two seasons, matched McLellan with a team-best three runs in Fresno.
Purpura, who finished 5-1 with seven saves and threw a complete-game five-hitter against Delta in the opener, got the final three outs to spark the Pirates’ wild celebration.
“It feels great, especially being a sophomore and coming back and being a team leader,” Purpura said of the back-to-back titles. OCC is the eighth team to earn at least two consecutive state crowns, the first since Riverside capped a three-peat in 2002.
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State Championship tournament
Final
Orange Coast 9, San Joaquin Delta 4
SCORE BY INNINGS
SJD 020 000 002 – 4 9 3
OCC 000 810 00x – 9 10 1
Rosales, McPhaul (4), Huss (4), Caffese (8) and Theroux; Corona, Serigstad (3), Purpura (9) and Kruger. W – Serigstad, 7-3. L – Rosales, 0-1. 2B – Graddy (SJD), McLellan (OCC), Grimes (OCC).