Moorpark College (6-9) let a close one slip by Thursday, 3-1, against Cuesta College (13-6), in a matchup where MC left 17 runners on base.

Cuesta’s pitcher, Phillip Gerber shut down MC early on, only allowing six hits through six innings. Gerber came out with a variety of sweet Submarine delivery pitches, sometimes leaving MC bewildered at the plate.

Worse though for MC was the amount of runners-left-on they had in the day. Gerber’s hot pitching and Cuesta’s lock down defense held MC to one run on the day and 17 runners left on.

“We just didn’t get key hits,” said Mario Porto, head coach of MC. “We left too many men on base, we just didn’t get it done.”

Cuesta’s offense opened up on a walk-off home run from second baseman Alex Detz in the top of the second, coming off a fastball low and inside from MC’s starting pitcher Tyler Karp.

Karp went five innings, with six hits and three runs, keeping his cool after giving up the home run he struck-out the next batter on three straight and closed out the top of the second on two fly-outs.

“It was a rough game,” said Karp. “We just left a whole bunch of people on base. Our defense played well, the pitching was there. We just, couldn’t score.”

The ability to not bring home the runners-left-on was the tale of the tape.

The only score for MC coming in the bottom of the seventh from first baseman, Tyler Yuckert on a RBI single was, for a brief moment, bringing life back to the Raiders.

But life was sucked out when after the run MC was closed out for the remaining two innings.

Assistant coach Curtis Scott reiterated the point of not being able to score and how detrimental its part was in the loss.

“We pitched pretty well, we had our opportunities, and didn’t follow through,” said Scott. “We just weren’t able get the big hits.”