The Pirates’ baseball team was unable to hold off a potent offense, giving up 13 runs in a 13-4 loss to the first-place Oxnard College Condors at Ventura April 27.

After allowing four runs in the first inning, the Pirates’ pitching woes continued, and the Condors (24-10, 14-4 WSC)  were unwilling to stop their attack with the bats. 

Despite the disappointing performance defensively, Pirates head coach Don Adams could not help but admire the great pitching effort by the Condors J.C. Aguayo, who allowed four runs in a complete game of work.

“J.C. is good; he is one of the best pitchers in the conference,” said Adams. “When you faced a good pitcher, you know you’re going to struggle.”

The Pirates (15-18, 7-12) did have a spark of life in the bottom of the fifth inning that gave the team some hope for a comeback.

Trailing 5-0, second baseman Derek Ring hit the unorthodox inside-the-park home run that scored two runs, but not without the help of two costly Condors’ errors. Ring hit the ball towards right field were the right fielder had a chance to make the out but couldn’t catch it. As Ring went towards third base, the throw to third was high and went into foul territory allowing Ring to score.

The Pirates are currently in the bottom half of the Western State Conference North division, and fell 7 /2 games back from first place, clearly out of title contention with only two games remaining in the regular season.

As a result, the Pirates were never in playoff contention before the game and will not be headed to the postseason.

However, Adams is excited to finish the season against the Pirates’ other district rival, the Moorpark College Raiders, coaching against his good friend and Raiders head coach Mario Porto. Adams hopes his team will be able to end the season on a positive note by beating the Raiders,  

“We got Moorpark coming up,” Adams said. “It’s another rival [and we] cant wait.” 

The Pirates will host the Raiders on April 30 to close out the season. First pitch is set for 2:30 p.m.