Santa Ana

SANTA ANA - The Orange Coast College baseball team almost went the entire month of February without losing a game. On the last Friday of the month, the Pirates lost for the first time. Six days into March, the Pirates seemed on the brink of dropping their second game of the season. This one was a critical Orange Empire Conference game at Santa Ana College on Tuesday. Coach John Altobelli believed his Pirates tried to do too much in the first two innings because of the magnitude of the game between the top two ranked teams in Southern California.

Newport Beach firefighters extinguished a fire Friday morning that had fully engulfed a motor home, authorities said. The 27-foot rig was ablaze when firefighters arrived at the scene on Southwest Cypress Street in Santa Ana Heights about 9:22 a.m. Initial reports said horses in a nearby corral were endangered by the fire. Firefighters found one horse in a corral at the rear of the property, but the animal escaped uninjured and was moved by neighbors, the Newport Beach Fire Department said.

NEWPORT COAST — The weather was perfect and the sun was shining — an ideal day to spend in the garden. Sage Hill School senior Spenser Apramian stood over a raised planter showing a third-grade student how to use a small stick to plant seeds. "In each you're going to put a little seed with some water," the 18-year-old said, "and eventually they're going to grow. " About 200 third-graders from Costa Mesa's Killybrooke Elementary School, the Edward B. Cole Sr. Academy and El Sol Science and Arts Academy, both in Santa Ana, took a field trip to the private Newport Coast high school for a lesson at the school's new organic teaching garden.

Despite passionate public outcry from Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa residents about revived talks of the proposed 19th Street Bridge, Newport Beach council members are slow to distance themselves completely from the project. Councilwoman Leslie Daigle is requesting the city reexamine the bridge — which would alleviate traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway and Victoria Street bridges — ahead of either reaffirming the city's position to support it or come out against it. "We're taking it up as an accommodation to our neighbors in H.B. who are impacted by traffic," Daigle wrote in an email.

SANTA ANA - Occupy Orange County took a different turn Friday for the two-year anniversary of theU.S. Supreme Courtruling involving Citizens United. They went for laughs. Still, the day in downtown Santa Ana was all about raising awareness of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the January 2010 decision that prohibited the government from limiting funds from independent parties, such as corporations and labor unions, for political purposes. "People driving by will hopefully see the signs saying, 'Corporations are not people,' and, 'Your voice should not equal a dollar bill,' and take that [message]

COSTA MESA - Sometimes, Steve Spencer gets so caught up coaching his Orange Coast College men's basketball team, he forgets his own exceptions. So it was with 9:00 left in his team's 85-63 trouncing of Orange Empire Conference visitor Santa Ana on Wednesday that the 11th-year Pirates head man confounded his own logic. "Settle down! Settle down!" Spencer yelled from the bench as sophomore guard Will Ligon sped past in transition with the ball on his fingertips and a back-pedaling defender drifting into the lane.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Orange Coast 61, Santa Ana 44 COSTA MESA — Jenna Arnett led three Pirates in double figures in the Orange Empire Conference clash at OCC Wednesday. Arnett had 13 points, while Anna Bartel had 12 and Ashley Engeln added 11 for the winners (9-10, 1-1 in conference). Michelle Angel had seven points, six assists and four rebounds for OCC, which led, 35-18, at halftime. Santa Ana (4-13, 0-3), coached by former OCC star Flo Luppani, had 26 turnovers.

IRVINE — Three city police officers stood back with nothing to do but watch as Occupy Orange County protesters packed up the last of their supplies during Wednesday's peaceful end of nearly three months of overnight occupation at the Civic Center. Tents, tarps, audio equipment, a podium and other well-worn supplies were loaded into cars beginning at 8 a.m. at the corner of Alton Parkway and Harvard Avenue. Supplies will be transferred to a new site, Fullerton City Hall. "It's kind of a bittersweet thing," said J.B. Wagoner, a protester from Temecula.

SANTA ANA - The Irvine Valley College men's basketball team opened up Orange Empire Conference play Friday night against Santa Ana College, and it was a good thing the game wasn't scored on style points. Santa Ana likes to drag its opponents into the dirt and make it a scrap, and Friday's matchup certainly was grimy. Irvine Valley (14-3, 1-0 in conference) made just 16 of 56 field goal attempts (28.6%) including a dismal one for 20 from beyond the three-point line, but still managed to emerge on top with a 46-40 victory.

COSTA MESA — Renowned pianist Ellis Hall will play at a charitable event benefiting the Mercy House this weekend at the OC Mart Mix. "He's really great," Allison Harvey, organization development director, said of the blind musician. "He gets a really good feel with the crowd and is just an incredibly soulful, talented musician. " The event aims to raise awareness of the Santa Ana-based nonprofit that helps the homeless as well as raising awareness of homelessness countywide.