OCC Baseball Heads Into Weekend On A Roll

The Ocean County College baseball team has a pair of doubleheaders this weekend, and they head into them on a roll, after sweeping Bucks County Community College in a doubleheader, 13-4 and 5-2, on Wednesday.

The Vikings (3-0) got off to a slow start in the first game, a 13-4 win, against Bucks (0-2), falling behind 3-0 in the first inning. But Jordan Silvestri (Toms River North) shook off the early struggles to strike out 8 in four innings of work while before Corey Zytko (Brick Memorial) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the victory.

OCC scored two runs in the bottom of the second inning to narrow the deficit to 3-2, then exploded for five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-3 lead.

Joe Karagiannakis (Toms River North) was 4-for-5 with two RBI in the game, Brandon Bloodgood (Toms RIver East) was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI, and John Sullivan (Brick) was 2-for-4 with an RBI double. Angelo Miragliotta (Henry Hudson Regional School, Atlantic Highlands) was 3-for-3 with two runs batted in as well.

In the second game, Chris Gehrsitz (Jackson Memorial) improved to 2-0 with an 11-strikeout complete game.

The Vikings fell behind, 2-0, as Bucks put up a run in the second and third innings, but responded with two runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game and two more in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead.

Jordan Reizer (Howell) was 2-for-4 and drove in three runs for OCC, and C.J. Pulcine (Raritan) was 2-for-2 with an RBI. Reizer also stole four bases in the doubleheader.

Ocean County College travels to Luzcerne, in Nanticoke, Pa., Saturday for a doubleheader that begins at noon, then is home for a double dip against Rockland Community College of Suffern, N.Y., on Sunday. That series begins at noon.