Vidrio goes the distance again as Pirates roll past Hornets, 7-1

COSTA MESA -- Suddenly, sophomore lefty Art Vidrio is becoming quite the ball hog. 

After a year-and-a-half of no complete games, Vidrio went the distance for the second straight outing as the Pirates topped visiting Fullerton, 7-1, on Thursday at Wendell Pickens Field.

It wasn't quite as tidy as last week's CG one-hitter against Riverside, but it more than got the job done as the first-place Pirates (18-9, 9-3 in OEC) collected their sixth straight win. Vidrio allowed one run on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts. After allowing six hits over the first four innings, he allowed just three baserunners the rest of the way in a 110-pitch performance.

Coast pounded out 13 hits off of three Hornet pitchers and five batters -- Robert Longtree (2-for-4, one run), Chaneng Varela (2-for-4, two runs), Jack Kruger (2-for-3, one run, one RBI), Nick Grimes (2-for-4) and Chris Prescott (2-for-4, one run) -- collected multi-hit games. In addition, Tommy Bell launched a solo home run and scored twice, while James McLellan had a hit and three RBI.

Bell's solo blast -- his first of the season -- came in the first inning off of Fullerton starter Gordan Cardenas (2-4), who allowed six earned runs on nine hits in five innings.

The Hornets (17-8, 7-5) tied the game up in the second, but the Pirates would respond with a run in the fourth and four big runs in the fifth.

A sacrifice fly off the bat of Stephen Corona put Coast back out in front, 2-1, in the bottom of the fourth. 

In the fifth, Prescott singled, went to second on a hit by Longtree and advanced to third on a single by Varela. But, the throw in from center field was botched by Cardenas, allowing Prescott to score to make it 3-1. After Bell was intentionally walked to load the bases, another sacrifice fly -- this one by Kruger -- made it 4-1 and a two-out, two-run single by McLellan plated Varela and Bell to make it 6-1.

That would be more than enough for Vidrio, who lowered his season ERA to 1.96 and moved into the top-10 in OCC history in career wins with 14 after going 8-3 as a freshman last year.