Community College Baseball : Golden West Rally Beats Fullerton : Gonzales Baffles the Hornets for Second Time This Season

For seven innings Saturday, Golden West College pitcher John Gonzales was hardly noticed. He was pitching well enough, but all eyes were on Fullerton’s Will Barber, who had a two-hit shutout going and was leading by a run.

But Golden West rallied for a run in the eighth inning and three more in the ninth for a 4-1 victory in an Orange Empire Conference game at Fullerton.

Gonzales (2-1) had allowed a run in the first, but retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced. A left-hander who throws mostly off-speed pitches, Gonzales allowed 10 hits, walking one and striking out three. Gonzales has allowed three runs in 17 1/3 innings against Fullerton this season.

Barber (2-4) had to settle for a well-pitched loss.

Josh Bammer had an RBI single in the eighth for Golden West to tie the score at 1-1.

In the ninth, Barber struck out the first two batters but walked Robb Carabba, the No. 9 hitter. Steve McKowen and Frank Herman followed with singles to give the Rustlers a 2-1 lead.

Craig Paquette and Dan Villegas also had RBI singles for Golden West (12-6 overall, 6-2 in conference play), which is one-half game behind first-place Rancho Santiago.

Sal Capraro had an RBI single in the first for Fullerton (8-12, 3-6). Russ Barnes and Kevin Monson had three hits each for Fullerton. Herman had two hits for Golden West.

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Orange Coast 6, Riverside 0--John Douris (4-1) pitched a five-hitter with four walks and eight strikeouts for visiting Orange Coast (15-7-1, 5-4). Scott Talanoa hit a home run, his eighth, for OCC in the second. Marty Cordova had three hits and Mike Van Blaricom two for OCC. Riverside is 4-14, 1-8.

Rancho Santiago 6, Cypress 5 (10 innings)--Conrad Colby had a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the 10th for host Rancho Santiago (14-8, 7-2). Danny Ontiveros hit a two-run home run in the ninth to tie it, 5-5, for Rancho Santiago. Marty Neff also hit a home run for the Dons. Ken Kendreana hit a two-run home run for Cypress (16-8, 4-4).