Congratulations to Brianna Vanderwal (left) and Liana Fuentes (right) on qualifying for the California State Meet.

According to OCC Sports Information Director Tony Altobelli's article on the school's website, "Vanderwal finished fourth overall with 4,060 points, while Fuentes was right behind her teammate, placing fifth with 4,058 points."

Click here to read the full story.

Now since you know the background, here's the little Q & A session I had with them at the baseball game.

So you guys qualified for the California State Meet. Talk about it a little bit.
Fuentes: Freaking amazing.
Vanderwal: We’re really excited. Stoked would be the word. We get to go out to San Mateo. There are only two of us going so far.
Fuentes: Tell him about the two days. It was a long...
Vanderwal: Yeah it’s a long day. You’re there from nine to about.
Both: Five.
Vanderwal: For both days.

Nine to five both days huh? So it’s like a job then.
Both: Yeah pretty much.

Talk about the Riverside Community College meet tomorrow.
Fuentes: It’s going to be intense.
Vanderwal: It’s going to be the hardest match ever.
Fuentes: Their marks are better than ours but we can show up and perform and get three wins.

How do you think you guys will do?
Fuentes: I think we’ll come out and compete. We’ll get them.
Vanderwal: Last year was really neck-to-neck. It always comes down to the 4x4 at the very end. The coaches will pull you to the side (to discuss) strategy.


Well once again, congratulations on making it to State and I wish you two the best of luck.

If anyone who's reading this have time Friday, go see Vanderwal, Fuentes and the rest of the OCC track and field athletes at the OCC track meet starting at 2 p.m.

It's official - I am bad luck. I thought these shoes would really do the trick.

Tony Lee is 8-17 overall and the shoes are 3-1.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here to read about why I started wearing these shoes at OCC sporting events.

I might clean my shoes today - I mean it's not like I can tell the shoes to practice, lift weights and get mentally tough.

Sigh.

First, I want to apologize to the OCC baseball team for showing up. I’m almost 100 percent convinced that I am bad luck.

And it's not March anymore so the March "Mustache Madness" doesn't apply. I want to desperately blame it on the change of the months but that would be as ridiculous as someone wearing blue shoes with orange shoelaces as good luck.

...Moving on.

I want to give a shout out to four members of the OCC softball team Kayse Potter, Maddie Page, Kiele Brown and Kalyn Lee for stopping by, saying hi and hanging out with me.

Also, Page would like the world to know that Cypress College always seems to hit two home runs against her. Maybe she doesn’t want the world to know but I’m sharing it nonetheless.

I know the softball girls personally and they are the coolest set of girls you’ll ever meet. I say more of us go to the softball games to support them.

I also want to give a shout out to OCC track and field rock stars Brianna Vanderwal and Liana Fuentes for stopping by. If you didn’t know, Vanderwal and Fuentes qualified for the upcoming California State Meet about a week ago at the Southern California Heptathlon Championships.

I want to give thanks to all the players and coach John Altobelli for the interviews. I also want to thank Tony Altobelli for helping me fill in the blanks when I was busy with interviews or updating the blog.

And I also want to clear something up.

Through my interview questions, I realized that I may have insinuated I blamed the loss on OCC pitcher Calvin Drummond. That’s 100 percent not the case.

If any of the players, coaches or fans thought I was being a jerk by asking those questions that way, I apologize and that wasn’t my intent.

Drummond actually pitched a great game and even had a no hitter going through the fifth inning.

And finally, thank you to the four people that picked up the Coast Report newspaper located next to my little station and tens of others that picked up the flyer on the OCC sports blog.

Talk about that home run. What pitch did Christian Meza throw?
It was a slider down low and I got lucky; (Meza) struck me out two at bats before that so I was trying to hit the ball in play, make something happen, trying to do something good for the team. I found the sweet spot of the bat and it just took off. [Click here to read about his home run]

Talk about Meza’s performance today.
He’s a good pitcher. It was kind of hard to see today with the overcast weather, it was kind of hard to pick it up, but I don’t want to take anything away from his performance. He was pretty filthy today and kept us off balance.

Talk about the 12-game winning streak.
It’s a good run. It was amazing to go 12 in-a-row. It’s going to come to an end eventually so we just got to get back on the horse and maybe start another one.

You guys have been scoring a lot of runs per game and only scored two today. Is this a red flag or are you guys OK?
No, (Meza) pitched a great game. It’s hard to score that many runs in a game. We have a lot of guys that can hit pretty well but we weren’t connecting on all cylinders today.

Coach John Altobelli said at the beginning of the year that the team’s defense was an issue but you guys have kept your errors low.
Yeah I think the players are playing up to their potential now. At the start, you didn’t know if you were going to start and whatnot...people are playing kind of lose right now and just playing up to their abilities and its helping out on the errors.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

The 12-game winning streak snapped. Any comments?
It was a good run. The guys did a good job. When you face a good pitcher, he’s going to (throw) good pitches and the guy pitched his butt off – did a good job.

Talk about Christian Meza’s 13 strikeout performance today.
You give out 13 freebies where they don’t have to make a play; it makes it a little bit easier for them but we still had our chances.

What happened in the 9th inning exactly? Did Calvin Drummond throw bad pitches?
No, he was trying to get ahead and the guy jumped on a fastball down and in, (the batter) did a great job. I mean Calvin pitched great. He had some 0-2 pitches that should’ve been located better that kind of came back and bit him in the butt but that’s baseball.

What’s the one thing you guys did good today and one thing you did bad?
We missed too many signs which kind of came back and bit us in the butt. The guys competed today, I mean we’re in the game, Calvin was good.

[Photo courtesy of Orange Coast College]

Talk about the top of the ninth inning for a little bit. Were Calvin Drummond’s pitches where you wanted them?
Down in the zone was what I was looking for but the pitches drifted back over the plate. A lot of our pitchers throw a lot of balls that move a lot so you miss your spot even a little bit, those pitches will fall back in the strike zone. It’s just one of those things you know – it was their day to win.

Talk about that really quickly. You guys were on a 12-game winning streak.
It was a hell-of-a-run. We were putting things together, we were getting hits right when we needed them; the thing about baseball it’s one of the easiest things to do when you’re hot and it’s one of the hardest things to do when you’re not. I think it’s a good thing to experience a loss because it kind of gets of refocused, back on the grind, so we’re not going into every game expecting to win. It’ll kind of revitalize our guys’ work ethics a little bit.

Talk about Santa Ana College’s Christian Meza’s 13 strikeout performance today.
I know him very well. I faced him in all four years of high school. I played with him a lot in the summer. He’s a great pitcher, he absolutely deserved to win, I’m proud for him as a friend and he deserved it – he pitched a hell-of-a-game.

Anything else you want to add?
We’re not too bothered by this loss. We know we’re still in first place (in the Orange Empire Conference). We’re ready to get back to practice and go on another winning streak.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

Here are the final results from the game.

Santa Ana College: 4 runs, 9 hits, 0 error
Orange Coast College: 2 runs, 9 hits, 1 error

Winning pitcher: Christian Meza (7-0) - 2 earned runs, 9 hits, 0 walks, 13 strikeouts
Losing pitcher: Calvin Drummond (6-3) - 4 earned runs, 8 hits, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts

SAC's record (21-9, 10-5 in conference)
OCC's record (21-8, 12-3 in conference)

I would write a game summary too but Coast's Sport Information Director Tony Altobelli beat me to it.

Click here to read his game summary.

Stay tuned for interviews and my shout outs and thanks.

The Pirates are not going to give up its 12-game winning streak easily.

OCC's shortstop Beck Wheeler led off the inning with a single hoping to start a ninth inning rally.

Scott Hong made great contact but it dropped in the center fielder's glove.

Next up was Ricky Stokes and he hit a single between third base and shortstop to bring up the go-ahead run to the plate.

Ryan Dunn, on a full count, popped out to the first baseman.

With only one out left, Pirate head coach John Altobelli decided to pinch hit for D.J. Arellano for freshman Gary Detwiler.

Detwiler, on a 1-2 count, struck out looking and ended the game.

The Santa Ana College Dons have taken the lead.

Santa Ana's catcher James Davis hit a deep fly ball to center fielder Mykal Stokes to score the go-ahead run.

The next batter, Julian Duran, hit a single over a jumping Pirate third baseman Drew Hillman to score another run.

The Dons are leading the game and the Pirates are down to its last three outs.

If I had a hat on, then it would be the time to "rally-fy" it.

Hopefully shortstop Beck Wheeler can start off a rally.

The Santa Ana College Dons are not going back home without a fight. The Dons have tied it up 2-2.

In the top of the eight inning, Santa Ana's Julian Duran led off the inning with a walk and later scored off Marcus Piazzisi's single.

The Don's threaten with runners on third and first but the Pirates got out of the inning.

EDIT
Coast threatened to score in the bottom of the eight inning with two outs but Brett Wallach struck out swinging leaving Mykal Stokes on second base.

In the top of the ninth inning, Santa Ana's Derek Eligio led off the inning with a single down the middle.

The next batter, Stephen Gonzalez, hit a double down the left field line.

That would be the last batter OCC's Calvin Drummond faced as he was replaced with Brett Williams. The score is still 2-2.

Your Orange Coast College Pirates have taken the lead in the bottom of the sixth.

After OCC's D.J. Arellano led off the inning grounding out to third, Ryan Sheeks got his second single of the game hoping to start a rally.

With Mykal Stokes up to bat, Sheeks attempted to steal second base but was thrown out by Santa Ana College catcher James Davis.

With two outs and down to his last strike, Stokes singled and brought the go-ahead run to the plate.

OCC's Drew Hillman hit his fourth home run of the year over the left field fence giving the Pirates its first lead in the game.

Your Orange Coast College Pirates have a 2-1 lead.

In the top of the seventh, Coast's Calvin Drummond had another 1-2-3 inning to keep the one-run lead.

Coast threatened to score again with two outs in the bottom of the seventh but D.J. Arellano grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

Multiple baseball scouts are out here at Wendell Pickens Field today to watch OCC's starting pitcher Calvin Drummond. One of the scouts said Drummond is lookng good today.

Click here to read a blog from BaseballAmerica.com on Drummond and other OCC baseball players.














[First photo by Hank Schellingerhout]
[Second photo by Tony Lee]

Through the first four innings, the game remained scoreless but in the fifth inning the Santa Ana College Dons drew first blood.

OCC starting pitcher Calvin Drummond had a no-hitter through the first four inning but Santa Ana's designated hitter Derek Elgio hit a single to left field to break the no-no.

Santa Ana's next batter Stephen Gonzalez also singled to left and after a sacrifice bunt by James Davis, the Dons had runners on second and third.

Drummond got Julian Duran to lineout for the second out but threw a wild pitch to score Elgio before getting out of the inning.

OCC was retired in order in the bottom of the fifth.

The score is 1-0 in favor of the Dons.

Lady Pirates softball players Kiele Brown (left) and Kalyn Lee (right) are here next to yours truly watching and supporting the baseball team.

Kiele took this picture herself. A+ on the picture quality.

Also, come support your softball team. The lady Pirates are still winless in conference.

Sad face.

Their next home game is on April 13 against Saddleback College at 3 p.m.

[Photo by Kiele Brown]

Orange Coast College

1) LF – Ryan Sheeks
2) CF – Mykal Stokes
3) 3B – Drew Hillman
4) 1B – Brett Wallach
5) SS – Beck Wheeler
6) RF – Scott Hong
7) DH – Ricky Stokes
8) 2B – Ryan Dunn
9) C – D.J Arellano

Pitcher – Calvin Drummond

Santa Ana College

1) LF - Marcus Piazzisi
2) 3B - Matthew Hart
3) 1B - Christopher Miller
4) CF – Jake Eccles
5) DH - Derek Eligio
6) RF – Stephen Gonzalez
7) C – James Davis
8) SS – Julian Duran
9) 2B – Cory Goodchild

Pitcher – Christian Meza

The baseball game between Orange Empire Conference rivals Santa Ana College and Orange Coast College is underway.

OCC shortstop Beck Wheeler got all three outs in the top of the first inning but also committed one error.

OCC starting left fielder Ryan Sheeks led off the inning with a single up the middle but after Mykal Stokes' sacrifice bunt, No. 3 hitter Drew Hillman and No. 4 hitter Brett Wallach struck out and grounded out to the catcher respectively.

The score is 0-0.

Starting lineups are coming up soon.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

I'm completely bummed right now. I always miss the great games.

The OCC baseball team on Saturday scored 21 runs against Riverside Community College to win its 11th straight game.

I repeat, 21 runs.

Coast's Sports Information Director Tony Altobelli posted an article of exactly what happened on the OCC athletics website and I thought I should share it with you guys (Click here to read about it).

Also, in case you didn't know, the entire OCC baseball team was picked as the Pirate of the Week for scoring 14 runs in one inning in the second week of this semester.

I repeat, 14 runs, one inning.

Our baseball team is definitely exciting to watch and has one of the most potent offenses in the Orange Empire Conference and probably the state too.

This, along with that I'm covering Coast's next game live, should entice all the OCC students and faculty to come out to Wendell Pickens Field Thursday at 2 p.m. to support the team.

Go Pirates and (my magical shoes and) I will see you in the stands.

[Photo courtesy of Orange Coast College]

There is a new poll on the right side of the blog.

The first two choices will be just like my regular "It's Me, Tony Lee" columns.

The third choice, the Tony does: track and field option, will be similar to when I wrote about my experience with the softball team.

The fourth choice will be like my column back in the day before I wrote exclusively on Orange Coast College sports. I can write about any professional athlete or team. Here's an oldie (but a goodie) Ryder Cup piece I wrote.

But let's get more than 12 votes on the poll this time. I really had a sad face knowing that less than 10 percent of the blog viewers voted.

The first poll of OCC Sports blog is over.

Yours truly will cover the Pirates vs. Santa Ana College baseball game at Wendell Pickens Field on Thursday.

Thanks to everyone that voted.

There's been over 120 visitors to my blog this week and there's only 11 votes on the poll.

Now I heard from some people that they cannot see the poll on the website. I hope my helpful picture will guide people in the right direction.

So far it's a close race between the baseball game and the track and field event Caleb Monticalvo told me about in his interview. And I'm sad that there's no love for the softball team.

But thanks to the 120 visitors and the 11 people that voted on the poll. You are the ones that make it worthwhile for me to blog about OCC sports.

Eldrick "Tiger" Woods goes by his non-birth name. I go by Tony instead of my Korean name Do Yeon.

Commonality No. 1.

Woods grew up in Cypress, which is in the same city as Coast's Orange Empire Conference rivals Cypress College.

Commonality No. 2.

And last but not least, Woods plays golf and yours truly was on the 2008 Coast golf team.

It's not a convincing argument but it's my blog and if I want to write a letter to my favorite golfer in the world, then I'm going to write a letter to my favorite golfer.

Dear Tiger Woods,

I don't know how you make a clutch putt after clutch putt but thank you for coming back to our TV screens and bedazzling us with your brilliance.

The golf world missed your presence - whether it was your doggedness to win the US Open with a torn ACL or your Tiger-esk celebrations after making a putt on the 72nd hole.

When you stepped up to your putt on the final hole of the Bay Hill Invitational, I was giddy as a school girl because I knew you were going to make it.

The excitement you bring to watching golf is the difference between an American soccer announcer and a Latino one broadcasting a game.

The fans missed what you bring to the TV screen, the PGA Tour missed your ratings boost and I missed seeing my favorite athlete play my favorite sport.

And simply, you give me a reason to watch golf on Sunday.

I hope you win the Masters in April and I hope you win all the other major tournaments as well.

- Signed, Tony Lee


[First photo: Courtesy of Getty Images]
[Second photo: Courtesy of Associated Press]