The Long Beach City College baseball team will need to have a short memory after falling 18-3 to visiting Orange Coast College on Friday in the opening game of a best-of-three California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Southern California Regional playoffs series.

The defending state champion and No. 10 seeded Pirates totaled 20 hits against six LBCC pitchers. Orange Coast led 11-0 after a five-run seventh-inning before the No. 7 seeded Vikings finally scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh.

LBCC starter Evan May (Oxford Academy) lasted just 4 2/3 innings after allowing six runs (five earned) and nine hits.

Long Beach (20-17) managed seven hits but couldn't really get anything going offensively. The Vikings scored two runs in the seventh and a final run in the eighth but deficit was too large to overcome.

Sophomore Jake Harris (Lakewood HS) went 2 for 4 with a RBI to lead Long Beach at the plate. His single in the seventh scored sophomore Marcus Rodriguez (Pacifica HS).

Art Vidrio picked up the win for Orange Coast (22-15) to improve to 8-1 overall. He allowed two runs and five hits over 6 1/3 innings. Chris Prescott went 4 for 5 with 2 RBI to lead the OCC offense.

Long Beach will turn to South Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year Julian Griego to keep their playoff hopes alive as he is scheduled to start Game 2 of the series on Saturday (May 2) at 11 a.m. Game 3, if necessary, would follow 30 minutes after.