El Camino rallies to deny OCC bid to state Final Four

Destiny had changed dugouts a few times in the best-of-three Southern California Sectional series between host Orange Coast College and El Camino.

But the final shift was, well, final, allowing the No. 5-seeded Warriors to erase a 5-0 deficit and claim a 9-5 victory on Sunday to advance to the four-team state championship in Fresno beginning Saturday.

It was unusual elements that helped El Camino (39-9) turn the tide against the No. 1-seeded Pirates (36-12), who were one win from tying a school single-season record, and were bidding for their fourth trip to the state final four in six seasons.

In a three-run third inning for the hosts, a run was erased when Travis Moniot passed J.T. Navarro running ahead of him on a double by Robert Teel. Moniot, who had scored on the play, was ruled out, the second out of the inning. So, later in the inning, when Nolan Powers flied out to right field, instead of plating what would have been the seventh run of the game on a sacrifice fly (had not Moniot been called out), it ended the inning.

Still, OCC, bidding for its third state title in four years and its fourth in nine seasons, appeared in good shape to close out the series.

But with the Pirates leading 5-3 with one out and the bases loaded in the El Camino seventh, Brady Dorn hit Teel’s catcher’s mitt on a swing to produce a catcher’s interference call and a run to make it 5-4. Ryan Eastburn followed with a sacrifice fly to left to tie the score. OCC third baseman Nolan Powers cut off the throw home and tried to make a play behind the runner heading to third, but his hard peg from close range handcuffed the shortstop, Moniot, covering third. The ball sailed into foul territory behind third base, allowing the go-ahead run to score and a subsequent single put the Warriors up 7-5.

OCC loaded the bases in the seventh and, with two outs, Ramiro Velasco running from first appeared to beat the throw from shortstop Darian Sylvester to second baseman Dorn covering second on a ground ball off the bat of Walker Keller. But Velasco was ruled out on the fielder’s choice, allowing reliever Kenneth Haus to wriggle out of the jam.

Haus, a freshman who had not pitched longer than four innings this season and entered with a 5.63 ERA in 32 innings, blanked the Pirates on two hits over 6 1/3 innings to earn his fourth win in four decisions this season.

“I think the turning point was when Kenny Haus kept putting up zeroes,” El Camino coach Nathan Fernley said.

Further adding to the unlikely scenario, sophomore third baseman Hunter Lewis, who was hitless in 10-at-bats during the series to that point, the lone hole in a potent and deep Warriors lineup, began the winning rally in the seventh with a line-drive single.

El Camino sophomore first baseman Connor Underwood hit a two-run home run in the ninth to finalize the score. It was only the second dinger of the season for Underwood.

“It’s disappointing,” OCC coach John Altobelli said. “We had a 5-0 lead, but we just did some uncharacteristic things. We pass a runner, the catcher’s interference, then we can’t throw a ball 10 feet [Powers’ error, the third of the game for the Pirates] to give up another run. There were some weird things, but sometimes the baseball gods are cruel.”

OCC blew a five-run lead only twice this season and its two-game losing streak after winning Friday’s series opener tied the longest losing skein of the season.

Velasco was three for four and Teel was two for four to lead OCC’s nine-hit attack. Velasco, Teel, Keller and John Balliet all had RBIs for the Pirates.

Teel was six for 12 in the series to lift his Orange Empire Conference-leading batting average to .388.

Keller was four for seven and reached base in seven of nine plate appearances during the series.

OCC starting pitcher McKinley LaFore allowed four runs on eight hits over six-plus innings but was not involved in the decision.

OCC reliever Blair Lewis allowed five runs, four earned, on six hits over three innings to fall to 4-2.

“Sometimes, baseball is one of those games when you expect the unexpected,” said Fernley, who guided the Warriors to the state Final Four for the first time since 2010.

“[OCC] is a really good team and [Altobelli] is such a class act,” Fernley said. “He sent me a text [Saturday night after El Camino evened the series with a 10-8 win] wishing us luck. [The Pirates] are totally the gold standard of community college baseball for the last few years and everybody wants to be like them, so, this is special. They are classy, they played hard and you can’t say enough good things about them.”

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Southern California Sectional

Game 3

El Camino 9, Orange Coast 5

SCORE BY INNINGS

EC 000 201 402 – 9 14 0

OCC 023 000 000 – 5 9 3

Ramos, Haus (3) and T. Casanova; McKinley, Lewis (7) and Teel. W – Haus, 4-0. L – Lewis, 4-2. 2B – Teel (OCC), Barba (EC), Dorn (EC). 3B – Velasco (OCC). HR – Underwood (EC).

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Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5