Brett Wallach is now officially a pro baseball player - and a successful one at that too.

In his appearance with the Ogden Raptors, a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate, he allowed one hit, no runs and had one strikeout against Great Falls Voyagers to help the Raptors win 4-3 Thursday.

Wallach started the game but according to Ogden manager Damon Berryhill on standard.net, Wallach was "on a one-inning assignment to get his arm back in shape after not throwing for three weeks."

Wallach is the 2009 Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year, hitting .352 with three home runs and 41 RBI and going 7-1 with a 2.18 ERA and 90 strikeouts over 82 2/3 innings on the mound, and helped OCC win its first state title since 1980.

Good luck Brett and I hope you have many more scoreless innings like this to come.

OCC baseball, volleyball and football players are moving onto four-year colleges and universities next fall, according to Daily Pilot reports.

Shortstop Beck Wheeler and closer Brett Williams from the 2009 OCC state championship team are going back to Division-I ranks.

Williams is a bounce-back from Loyola Marymount University and Wheeler started his career at University of the Pacific.

Wheeler (left), who hit .333 with two home runs and 28 RBIs this year, will suit-up for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.

Williams (right), who posted a 4-2 record with a 2.01 ERA and four saves, will be a Trojan and play for USC in the fall.

Both players were All-Southern California honorees and both earned first-team All-Orange Empire Conference recognition.

Also, Brett Wallach, the 2009 OEC Player of the Year who was drafted and signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, will report to the Ogden Raptors in Utah to play Rookie Ball baseball.

Three Coast volleyball players are also moving onto four-year universities.

As I reported in May, players Mike Stewart and Rick Schroeder are still going to Ohio State and UC Santa Cruz, respectively.

But Doug Astor (left), who told me he was thinking of either USC or Loyola Marymount, will head to Pepperdine University in the fall.

All three players were part of the 2008 team that made it to the state finals and the 2009 team that made it to the state final-four.

The Daily Pilot's Barry Faulkner wrote a good piece on the several Pirate football players moving onto four-years so I will leave just a link for the football players.

Actually, Barry made it easier for me because he confirmed all the rumors I've heard since the spring semester. The OCC Sports Blog and I thank you.

[Photos of Wheeler and Williams - Courtesy of Orange Coast College]
[Photo of Astory - By Melissa Lee]

So I have to confess something.

I'm a journalist first and a photographer second but this picture may prove I'm a dum-dum before those.

When I took this picture couple months ago at OCC's open gym, I had my camera on black and white setting and never changed it.

Smooth, I know.

But I'm sure I'm going to have plenty of opportunity to take pictures of her during the 2009-2010 lady Pirates' basketball season, in color.

Alyssa, my bad.

Well Orange Coast College and the world, Coast basketball (and the OCC Sports Blog) introduces freshman Alyssa Hanson.

Also, check out the fall preview article I wrote in the Coast Report for the entire women's basketball team.

So head coach Mike Thornton told me you turned down a scholarship from Chapman University to play at Coast. Talk about that.
Main reason why I did that was because I want to play basketball. Chapman's a good school, a lot of money, but I wanted to play basketball.

What made you choose Coast over other schools?
It was the basketball program and it's one of the best junior colleges around so it seemed like a great way to go. I love the coaches, the players and everything.

What are your expectations in the upcoming season?
We have a lot of good players coming in. I think the people that are coming in are going to really good (and) we're going to work hard and play very well.

What's your major going to be at OCC?
Right now it's undecided but it's between kinesiology or business.

What high school are you from?
Esperanza (in Anaheim).

[Photo by Tony Lee]

This is old news but I figure I should post it on here.

On the Major League Baseball draft days, three Pirates from the 2009 state champion team were drafted - the marquee player being Brett Wallach (pictured), the 2009 Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year who was picked in the third round to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Wallach was introduced at the Dodgers stadium on June 27 for signing with the team, according to truebluela.com.

His teammates, Drew Hillman and Mykal Stokes, were selected by Tampa Bay Rays in the 38th round and by San Diego Padres in the 46th round, respectively.

I'm assuming Hillman will go to UC Irvine next year and Stokes, a freshman this year, will return back to OCC to play for head coach John Altobelli.

Also, Altobelli's son, JJ Altobelli, was drafted by Milwaukee Brewers in the 49th round. JJ Altobelli graduated from high school this year and will attend University of Oregon in the fall.

Additional information on the draft picks are available on the OCC Athletics website - run by Coasts' Sports Information Director Tony Altobelli.

[Photo by Hank Schellingerhout]

I'm sorry for the mix up.

In the last issue of the Coast Report, I made a graphic box that said additional fall previews will be available in this link. [Also, click on this link to see the fall preview for men and women's cross country, football, women's volleyball and men's water polo]

Someone e-mailed to me at coastreportsports@gmail.com that additional fall previews were not up.

I got two words: my bad.

I hope it's not too late - since the fall season has not started yet.

The fall previews for men and women's soccer, men's basketball and women's water polo is on the blog below.

Once again, I'm sorry for the delay.

By Farren Benjamin

With less than half the team returning next season, the women’s soccer team is looking to improve on its 9-6-7 (7-4-5 in the OEC) run last year.

The team returns majority of the defenders from last season led by Lara Tishler, Cindy Rodriguez, and Julia Borkenhagen.

After ending last season undefeated in its final 6 games (2-0-4), the lady Pirates are looking to make it far into the playoffs this upcoming season.

[Photo by Hank Schellingerhout]

After missing last year’s playoffs by only a point, the men’s soccer team prepares for the fall by recruiting local players—head coach Laird Hayes’ philosophy.

“I’m not going outside Coast Community College district area. We should have a good crop of players from Newport and Estancia—both of whom made it into the second round of CIF last year,” Hayes said. “I feel community colleges should concentrate on developing local players.”

The Pirates will be led by last year’s All-Orange Empire Conference midfielder Toshi Fujimura, goalkeeper Brian Rippeto, Adrian Buonanoce, Darren Drysdale and Colin Heim along with the freshmen recruits. Hayes added he expects last year’s redshirt player Derek Woody to play significantly.

“We should be more competitive this coming year than last year,” Hayes said. “All these guys looked real good in the offseason conditioning program that we have.”

[Photo by Hank Schellingerhout]

The women’s water polo team looks to improve on last season by depending on its sophomore returners – including last season’s first-team, All-Orange Empire Conference player Amanda Simons.

“Individual sports can be freshmen dominated to have success but a sport like water polo you need that team cohesion so you need returning players to understand the system and values of the program,” head coach Anthony Iacopetti said.

He added the women’s water polo had the school’s highest team GPA last year with a 3.26.

“All of our returners from last year are working very hard. I think there are seven returning sophomores and they’ve participated in swim season,” Iacopetti said. “They have been doing the work in the offseason to get better so we’re really looking for them to lead us and advance the culture of the program."

[Photo by Hank Schellingerhout]

No additional runs have been scored in this game.

OCC's Calvin Drummond is going for a complete game. Through eight innings, he's thrown 15 strikeouts.

The score is still 7-1 in favor of the Pirates.

3 more outs until the state championships Pirates.

Mt. San Jacinto College fans hate the umpires and I have to agree with them.

Through the top of the fifth inning, it seems like we got the majority of the good calls. Even when Drew Madrigal hit his home run in the fourth inning, he muttered something after he touched home plate.

I feel for the Eagles fans but when your pitchers are giving up a lot of hits and walks and Coast has a Major League prospect pitching on the mound, most umpires are going to favor us.

Sucks, but that's just the way it is in sports.

But Drummond is really pitching a fantastic game - this is the nastiest I've seen him pitch this year. He has a dozen strkeouts through his first six innings.

Also, I talked to the Concordia University at Irvine's baseball coach. He said he wants to recruit Ryan Sheeks, Chris Licon and, so far the player of the game, D.J. Arellano.

He added Concordia broke 19 offensive records last season. If any colleges get any of the Coast player I've mentioned, then they are lucky.

Coast is up 7-1 thanks to a bases clearing triple by D.J. Arellano.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Arellano drove a ball to the right-center field gap scoring both Brett Wallac and Scott Hong. Eagles' center fielder Justin Wybenga dove for it but it was just out of his reach.

Also, through six innngs, OCC starting pitcher Calvin Drummond (in his first playoff outing) has 12 strikeouts and only gave up three hits.

[Photo of Drummond by Hank Schellingerhout]