Wallach, Bucs top Chargers

COSTA MESA — The first cut was the deepest for the visiting Cypress College baseball team Tuesday.

But Orange Coast College starting pitcher Brett Wallach immediately stemmed the flow of blood, allowing the Pirates’ recently prolific offense to deliver the Chargers, ranked No. 1 in the state, the ultimate wound in the form of a 10-2 Orange Empire Conference setback.

“It helped me,” Wallach said of a first-pitch, line-drive home run by Christian Ramirez that started the game and triggered what became an impressive outing for the sophomore right-hander. “It kind of got me to focus a little more; got me in that mind-set.”

With his mind and body aligned, Wallach surrendered just five hits and two runs, one earned, while striking out a career-high 11 in seven innings to earn the win and improve to 3-1.

Wallach also did his part with the bat, going two for four with three runs batted in and also scoring a run from his cleanup spot. His versatile efforts helped the Pirates (15-7, 6-2 in conference), ranked No. 15 in Southern California, extend their winning streak to six, all against conference foes.

And, having flexed their offensive muscle against a team that came in leading the conference with a .360 team batting average, Coach John Altobelli’s Pirates continued their dominance in the three phases of hitting, pitching and defense that have marked the winning streak.

OCC has outscored teams, 44-7, in its last five games, and 48-10 during the six-game streak.

Wallach’s pitching prowess, which was followed by two more strikeouts in two scoreless innings by sophomore Brett Williams, also continued the Pirates’ recent mound mastery. OCC pitchers have allowed just three earned runs in their last 48 2/3 innings (an 0.55 earned-run average).

Wallach said his team’s consistent run production — OCC has scored at least seven runs 12 times this season and posted at least nine runs in nine of its 15 wins — greatly increases the margin for error experienced by Pirates pitchers.

“It’s hard to lose when you’ve got an offense like that,” Wallach said.

Altobelli said Wallach’s ability to quickly recover from the game-opening blow, helped his team maintain its confidence.

“The key there is Wallach,” Altobelli said of the son of former major leaguer Tim Wallach. “He gives up a first-pitch home run, then he settles in and does a great job.

“We also had timely hitting today. Every time they scored, we scored, which was huge, I thought.”

OCC twice answered single-run innings by Cypress (17-7, 6-2) with multiple-run outbursts.

After Ramirez circled the bases in the first, Wallach drove in the equalizer on a fielder’s choice grounder to third, on which Ryan Sheeks breaking from third, beating the throw to the plate.

Errors on the next two plays helped OCC score two more, and its 3-1 lead turned out to be all it would need.

But, just in case, the Pirates added a single tally in the fourth on sophomore catcher D.J. Arellano’s RBI single, then answered the visitors’ unearned run in the seventh with two of its own, thanks to an RBI single by Wallach and an RBI groundout by sophomore shortstop Beck Wheeler.

OCC then broke it open with four in the eighth, highlighted by a two-run single from freshman center fielder Mykal Stokes, as well as RBIs by Wallach and Sheeks.

Stokes and Arellano were both two for four, while Sheeks finished two for five to bolster Wallach in the hosts’ 10-hit attack.

Wallach, a closer last season who did not pitch at Orange Lutheran High, but is being projected as a Friday night starter at Long Beach State next season, mixed a darting breaking ball with a fastball in the low-90-mph range.

“He did a good job of mixing them up,” Altobelli said. “I think [the Chargers] were trying to be really aggressive early in the count. Then, it was kind of a crapshoot what they were going to see with two strikes, and Wallach blew a couple fastballs by some guys today.”

Wallach has 23 strikeouts in his last 17 innings.

OCC, which lost, 5-3, in the conference opener at Cypress, will visit the Chargers’ diamond Thursday at 2 p.m.

Orange Empire Conference

Orange Coast 10, Cypress 2

SCORE BY INNINGS

Garcia, Ri. Hanson (7), Treybig (8) and Berberet; Wallach, Williams (8) and Arellano. W – Wallach, 3-1. L – Garcia, 3-4. 2B – Hong (OCC). HR – Ramirez (C).