The Ventura College baseball team jumped out to a 5-0 lead after four innings and despite a ninth inning rally by Oxnard College, held on for a 6-4 win April 24 at Oxnard College.
The Pirates (15-17, 7-11 WSC North) pounded out 13 hits, but only one for extra bases. Jeremy Dann collected three hits while scoring two runs. Joseph Luna, Thomas Avila and Ryan Jones all had two hits apiece. Avila drove in three of the Pirates six runs.
Avila brought home two runs in the top of the first when his bases loaded single to center scored Dann and Derek Ring. In the third, Avila drove in his third run with a ground out to short.
Albert Squires had a hand in both of the Pirates’ two runs in the fourth. With runners on first and second and one out, Squires’s single through the left side of the infield scored Dennis Slivick. Squires eventually came around to score on a passed ball to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead after four innings.
The Condors (23-10, 13-4) began to surge a comeback, scoring one run in the fourth and two in the fifth, but Pirates pitcher Jimmy Lopez retired the side in order in the sixth. Lopez allowed three earned runs while striking out three in 6 1/3 innings of work.
Pirates pitcher Sam Rinaldi came in from the bullpen, retiring the side in the eighth before running into trouble in the ninth.
Rinaldi gave up hits to Jake Mahan and Scott McNally to start the bottom of the ninth. Rinaldi retired the next two batters, but the second out was a ground out which brought home Mahan.
After Rinaldi issued a walk to Eric Weiss to put the tying run on base, another Pirates pitcher was called on to get the final out. The pitcher got Brad Greve to fly out to right field to end the game and record his third save of the season.
According to Pirates head coach Jon Adams, his team did not finish the game strong.
“We didn’t end the game the way we wanted to,” said Adams. “Our bullpen fell apart, but that happens sometimes. Sometimes our guys will be out there trying to close out a game and they soon find that it’s not that easy.”
The Pirates are currently in fifth place in the WSC and sit 6 ½ games behind the first-place Condors.
