COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : OCC Gets Past Riverside to Maintain Softball Lead

Orange Coast College kept its lead in the Orange Empire Conference softball race with a 2-1 victory over Riverside Friday night at Riverside.

The Pirates stayed 1 1/2 games ahead of Cypress and widened their lead to 2 1/2 over Riverside.

The Tigers (18-12, 11-5 in conference) scored once in the seventh and had the tying run on third base with one out, but Alisha Nelson (14-5) induced a groundout from Michelle Kleppe and struck out Tanya Brown.

Orange Coast (24-7, 14-3) opened the scoring in the second inning when Stephani Rogers’ single drove in Becky Elcock.

In the fifth, Tracy Colombo walked, went to second on a sacrifice and scored on Shannon Ebert’s double.

In another Orange Empire Conference softball game:

Cypress 1, Fullerton 0 (9 innings)--Nikkanni Andrews scored in the bottom of the ninth on a rundown, knocking the ball away from catcher Kim Fritts to give Cypress (27-13, 12-4) the victory. Shelly Crumrine had grounded to third and Andrews moved toward the plate and was caught in the rundown.

Jennifer Johnson had three hits, including a double, for Cypress. Tanya Armbruster had two hits, including a double, and Angie Guerrero had two hits for Fullerton (20-14, 9-8).

In South Coast Conference men’s volleyball:

Irvine Valley 3, Rancho Santiago 0--Mike Wagner had 14 kills for visiting Irvine Valley (14-7, 12-4), which won, 15-6, 15-14, 17-15, to remain in a first-place tie with Orange Coast. Joe Ugalde had 18 kills and Lyle Castillo had 16 kills for Rancho Santiago (1-17, 1-14).

In South Coast Conference women’s swimming:

Golden West 76, Mt. San Antonio 55--Jennifer Bloomfield won the 50 butterfly, 200 individual medley and swam a leg on Golden West’s winning 200 freestyle relay.