The Condors, Pirates, and Raiders are ready to play another competitive season of baseball, according to their coaching staff.
Oxnard and Moorpark are already two tournaments into the season, while Ventura has three in the bag looking toward their next tournament against Mt. San Antonio College.
Oxnard, the winner of last year’s cross-town rivalry, when matched against the other Ventura County college baseball teams, will start the season off at home with the Bash at the Beach Tournament on Apr. 29, along with Ventura, which will also play at home, and Moorpark, which will play away at Bakersfield.
“We are solid all around this year, and we’re going to mix it up,” said Oxnard’s Coach John Larson.
The VCCCD coaches introductory comments to the season were done before any games had been played, and according to Oxnard’s pitching coach Buster Stainland, it’s hard to prognosticate the season, but all three teams want to play ball this year. Last year, OC looked like it had the winning record in total league games according to the number of wins and losses. The fact is that Ventura played five more games than Moorpark and four more games than Oxnard, putting Ventura in the batters box to both make contact and get on base to take hold of the VCCCD rivalry, or strike out.
MC Coach Mario Porto spoke optimistically, while looking on at batting practice. “Moorpark’s coaching staff is excited about the season,” said Porto.
“If Moorpark doesn’t defeat itself this season we will be doing well.”
In Ventura, head coach Don Adams said this year the Pirates are playing with a better team. The last two years have been pretty bad for VC, Adams said, but this year “we have a new team and our pitching is coming around.”
Oxnard, however, with 14 returning players looks like it will have an advantage in experience, but according to Coach Stainland you can throw all the those statistics right out the window when it comes down to the VCCCD cross-town baseball rivalry.
“We realize that we are in a tough conference,” said Adams. “We don’t disguise the fact that Oxnard and Moorpark are good baseball teams.”
Moorpark’s next game is at Bakersfield’s tournament from Feb.10-12. Ventura will take on San Bernardino on the ninth away, while Oxnard will host Compton in Oxnard on Feb. 10.
