Game one is in the books and the Orange Coast College Pirates looks like the No. 1 ranked baseball team again.

When I talked to starting pitcher Brett Wallach about winning the Orange Empire Conference player of the year, he said he's never won an award like that and worked hard on his game this year.

One of the things he's worked on is how he handles himself after he throws a mediocre pitch.

"I mean that stuff doesn't really bother me anymore," Wallach said of the first pitch of the game that almost went over the fence. "I kind of let that stuff go. I mean it's just one pitch."

Wallach also bats cleanup for the Pirates and will be asked to do a lot during the playoffs. I hope he'll rise to the occasion and his fellow teammates can vibe off of that.

I also talked to interim head coach Bob Flint about the funk the team was in. He's told me before that in whatever sport and in whatever skill level it's in, offense will be inconsistent but defense is consistent.

"It's the nature of offense," Flint said. "It's here and it goes away - it comes and goes. Today it was there."

Since head coach John Altobelli can't be at the games, he's found creative ways to get game updates. It used to be his wife Keri text messaging him but now there's a live world wide web feed that he can look at.

"At least I got a visual. I got to write notes - things we did good, things we did bad," Altobelli said. "It wasn't too too bad but still painful but I guess I'm paying my price."

Some of his notes included a play between Ryan Sheeks and Drew Hillman. He said the team does that drill maybe once every two weeks but he wanted to reiterate to the team that every drill means something because it could be the difference in a one run game.

He also talke about the depth of his roster and also two out clutch hits - especially from Ricky Stokes.

"Not having him early in the year, we really missed his bat and his leadership," Altobelli said. "Boy he went through some hard times when he came back,he kept his chin up...That's why you're a good team. Good players and good teams push each other."

[Photo of posters that Alexis and Alyssa Altobelli made for the team - photo by Tony Lee]