Orozco carries Warriors past Pirates, 8-2

Game 4 – Orozco carries Warriors past Pirates, 8-2

Aaron Orozco carried his El Camino Warrior baseball team to the championship game after the Warriors defeated Orange Coast College, 8-2, in the semifinals of the California Community College Baseball State Championships on Tuesday at Fresno City College's John Euless Ballpark.

Orozco pitched seven strong innings for the Warriors (40-7), allowing two runs on five hits with four walks and four strikeouts in a 125-pitch performance. The freshman slugger helped his own cause at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a run scored and three RBI.

With the win, ECC will play on Tuesday at 11 a.m. against the winner of Monday night's elimination game between OCC (36-9-1) and Sacramento City.

The Warriors turned a bases-empty, nobody out frame into two runs, courtesy of back-to-back singles by Joseph Borges and Spencer Long, followed by an OCC error and a two-run single off the bat of Aaron Orozco.

Coast tied the game up at 2 in the top of the third. Skylar Limonchi single to center and advance to second on a walk by Tommy Williams. Davis Delorefice stepped up and lined a single to center, scoring Limonchi to make it 2-1. Two batters later, Murphy Stehly lined a single off of the glove of ECC third baseman Matt Bassera to score Williams and even the score.

Another harmless looking inning turned into ECC's third run of the game in the bottom of the third when Ty Conrad singled with two outs and nobody on, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI-single up the middle by Orozco.

That was all the Warriors would need as Long picked up his 11^thsave after throwing two scoreless innings in relief.

ECC put the game away in the bottom of the eighth, courtesy of an RBI-single by Taishi Nakawake, a two-run double by Jerry Granillo and a run-scoring fly ball by Spencer Palmer, turning a 4-2 lead into an 8-2 cushion.

Skylar Limonchi was OCC's lone hitter with multi-hits, going 2-for-4 with a run scored.