The Moorpark College defense squandered an early 3-0 lead in a comedy of errors against Ventura College and lost 8-4, on a partially sunny afternoon before a sparse crowd at Raiders Stadium on Thursday, March 3.

After winning two games on the road, the confident Raiders struck first with three runs in the third inning. The Ventura College Pirates hit back and took a 4-3 lead in the sixth, which it never relinquished. Ventura added a run in the seventh and iced the cake with another three in the ninth.

“You can’t make four errors and win a baseball game,” Head Coach Mario Porto said. “You have to win at home and we should have won today. You can’t make [mistakes] and expect to win.”

Second baseman Garrett Kueber’s home run to left, with one out in the third, got the ball rolling for Moorpark. With two outs, designated hitter Riley Conlan’s base hit to center was followed by Delton Duarte’s RBI double that drove Conlan home from first. Outfielder Austin Fields’ double scored Duarte from second.

“It was a 2-0 fastball I got in a good spot and hit it well,” said Kueber describing his home run. “It was a tough loss. We had an early lead and blew it, but we’ll be back at it [again] tomorrow.”

In a crucial 3-run sixth for the Pirates, a walk, a base hit and a hit batsman loaded the bases with one out. First baseman Dalton Duarte threw wildly to the backstop on an easy out and an unearned run crossed the plate.

“I made an error and it screwed us,” said Duarte. “I tried to rush my throw to home and threw it away. We played well at the beginning, and kind of lost momentum one inning, and it just went downhill from there.”

A fly ball out to right field drove home the second run of the sixth for Ventura and catcher Ryan Eaton threw high on a steal attempt at second base bringing home the third.

“It was a little stressful to be honest,” said Eaton, who was behind the plate when his twin brother, starting pitcher Jake Eaton, was on the mound. “I lost focus on a few past balls. We have to do a better job staying in later innings and have our pitchers pound the strike zone when we’re down.”

Moorpark loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth, but only produced a paltry run. Backup catcher Lorenzo Perez’s base hit was followed by a hit batsman and Kueber’s safe infield bunt. Riley Conlan’s groundball out brought Perez home from third.

“We got out early with lots of confidence in our bats,” said designated hitter Riley Conlan. “Our hitters were seeing the ball well and then it just completely flipped. It’s a game of inches.”

Down 5-4 in the ninth, any hopes for a Raiders comeback were dashed when Bryson Wallet tripled into the right outfield corner to open the inning for the Pirates. With two outs, two runs came home and reliever Michael Deleon was chased from the game. Replacement pitcher Kevin Victoria was greeted with a base hit that drove in the final nail to complete the rout.

“We’ve been playing well, but we hit a lot of hard balls right at guys,” said outfielder Austin Fields. “We still have momentum. We just have to keep it going.”

The Raiders visit Cuesta College in the second leg of a four-game series on Tuesday, March 5. at 2 p.m., and return to the friendly confines of Raider Stadium for a WSC game against Oxnard College on Saturday, March 12 at 1 p.m. Please check the CCCAA sports website for results and statistics.