Rancho Santiago Rallies to Defeat Cypress, 9-7

Mike Brambilla hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning to give visiting Rancho Santiago a 9-7 victory over Cypress in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game Thursday.

Brambilla’s homer, his fifth, completed a comeback for Rancho Santiago (17-6, 5-4), which trailed, 4-0, after a first-inning error led to four unearned runs for Cypress.

A dropped fly ball in the second gave Rancho Santiago one run, and another error in the fifth led to another unearned run. The Dons tied it, 4-4, on Brambilla’s sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Cypress went ahead, 7-4, in the bottom of the inning when Kenny Granger hit a two-run homer and Greg Jacobs doubled and later scored on an infield single by Keith Ginter.

But Rancho Santiago tied it in the eighth on a home run by Ryan Fullerton, an RBI double by Brambilla and an RBI single by Tony Zuniga.

Cypress (20-7, 8-3), which has a one-game lead over second-place Fullerton, is at Rancho Santiago at noon Saturday. Fullerton lost to Riverside, 4-3, Thursday.