Warriors Clinch Fourth-Annual Memorial Cup Series Thanks to Big Fifth Inning

TORRANCE, Calif. --- El Camino College opened its 2025 home schedule with a 6-1 victory over visiting Orange Coast on Saturday afternoon at Warrior Field.

With the victory, the Warriors clinched the season-opening Memorial Cup series for the second straight season after winning the series and claiming the trophy last season. The Warriors defeated the Pirates, 7-4, in game one of the series on Friday at John Altobelli Park.

Freshman Adrian Pineda picked up his first career win after a dominant start on the bump. The right-hander tossed seven scoreless innings and fanned six batters while scattering three hits and allowing one walk. Reliever Gavin Grace finished out the game, tossing two innings and allowing one run on two hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

Offensively, the Warriors pounded out 11 hits including four extra-base hits, but the bulk of the offense came in the decisive bottom of the fifth when the Warriors plated five runs on seven hits with four of those runs and four hits coming with two outs in the frame.

The rally started when Gil Solis tripled off the right-field wall. After a strikeout, Daniel Craig smacked a single to right to bring in Solis and open the scoring for a 1-0 lead. Slater Nunez then doubled down the left-field line to put runners on first and second with one out.

Ryan Matsukawa would then hit a high chopped to third, allowing the Pirates to get the out at home on the fielder's choice and the Warriors were down to their last out in the frame. But Lucas Bonham doubled to right field to clear the bases and put ECC up 3-0. An RBI double from Matt Hammond followed for a 4-0 lead and then, following a wild pitch, Cameron O'Neil dumped a single to shallow center to plate Hammond and cap the rally to give the Warriors a 5-0 lead.

Nunez, Bonham, Hammond and O'Neil would all finish the afternoon with two hits.

It's all the offense Pineda would need as he retired nine of the last 10 hitters he faced, allowing just a two-out single in the sixth. He recorded three of his six punchouts in his final two innings of work.

The Pirates did put Pineda on the ropes in the third and fourth inning as they got runners on second and third with two outs in both frames thanks to a pair of ECC errors. But Pineda got a fly out to end the third and a groundout to short to end the fourth to keep the Pirates off the board.

The Warriors will look to complete the sweep on Tuesday afternoon as they head back to John Altobelli Park for a 1 p.m. first pitch to conclude the 2025 Memorial Cup series.

ABOUT THE MEMORIAL CUP

The birth of the Memorial Cup began back in 2019, where, after two years of intense regional playoff battles, OCC and El Camino met at the 2019 3C2A State Baseball Championships. The Pirates won the state title that year with a doubleheader sweep over the Warriors on the final day. It was a series that truly brought out the very best of both schools and it connected Orange Coast and El Camino baseball together forever. During that season, ECC's Sladen Mohl was killed on his way home from practice on April 18, 2019. Nine months later, OCC head coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa were killed in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020, which claimed the lives of nine people. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, both schools wanted to create an annual three-game series in their honor of John and Sladen and in 2022, the Memorial Cup was born. The Warriors won the inaugural series in 2022 with the Pirates winning two of three contests in 2023 to claim the trophy.