In two games played over the Easter weekend, Moorpark College defeated Golden West College 9-8 in eleven innings on Good Friday, March 25, but lost the rematch 8-6 on Saturday, March 26 to split the nonconference series at Raiders Stadium.

In Friday’s win, the Raiders tied the game 8-8 in the bottom of the ninth. Blake Chiaramonte’s leadoff single set the table for Terrell Tate, whose RBI single drove him home from third two outs later.

“Michael Deleon was outstanding,” said Head Coach Mario Porto. “What he did in relief was the story of the day.”

Back-to-back singles by Jack Rosenberg and Chiaramonte, and a walk loaded the bases with one out in the eleventh for Moorpark. Tate popped-up in the infield, but Riley Conlan’s solid single to right won the loot for the Raiders.

“The pitcher had some good tail on his first pitch,” said Conlan, who had three hits and the winning RBI. “I was looking for a pitch to drive, so I’m glad I got a piece of it.”

The Rustlers scored with a run in the first, but first baseman Dalton Duarte’s grand slam home run to left answered to make it 4-1 in the bottom of the inning.

Singles by Jessie Aucelluzzo and Tate, followed by a wild pitch loaded the bases for Duarte.

“The ball felt good off the bat,” said Duarte. “I’ve been working on trying to stay on that side of the field. These are my guys and I was confident we could pull it off.”

Third baseman Michael Fuchs’ single drove home an unearned run for Golden West in the third and Dillon Persinger’s leadoff double was rewarded when he scored from third on fly ball out in the fifth.

Chris Gilbody’s single drove in lead off batter Chris Rodriguez, who doubled for Golden West in the sixth. With reliever John Cashman on for starter Kodi Koorndyk, Persinger’s base hit just inside the third base line scored Gilbody. Cody Marshall’s single drove in the third run and the Rustler’s took a 6-4 lead.

The Rustlers added runs in the seventh and eighth innings, but Moorpark bucked back with three of its own in the seventh giving the visitors an 8-7 edge in the ninth.

“I wanted to have fun and throw strikes,” said sophomore reliever Michael Deleon who got the win. “I hit my spots and hit the corners. It was an awesome win for us.”

Before Raiders’ starter Zack Daniels settled down in the first inning in Saturday’s game, the Rustlers had two runs on the board.

Aucelluzzo and Tate were both hit by pitches in the Raiders’ first inning and Conlan’s single loaded the bases for Duarte whose walk forced home Moorpark’s first run. Rosenberg’s RBI double drove in two more, and Austin Fields RBI groundout scored the fourth for a 4-2 lead.

“When I was keeping the ball down, I had good movement and was getting a lot of ground ball outs,” said Daniels. “In my last inning they got some Seeing-Eye base hits and capitalized on it.”

With two outs in the Raiders second, singles by Tate and Conlan were followed by Duarte’s RBI double. Conlan scored on a passed ball to make it 6-2. However, the Raiders attack was corralled by Rustler pitching after that.

“We swung at a lot of bad pitches and made three errors,” Porto concluded. “It wasn’t very pretty. [You need] that killer instinct to get more runs and we didn’t do that.”

Golden West added two runs in the sixth inning and took the lead for good with four in the eighth. Singles by Castillo, Shattles and Fuchs were followed by Gilbody’s RBI walk. With Conner Kinser pitching for Daniels, a wild pitch scored Shattles and Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly scored Fuchs. Knapp’s RBI single ended the rout, 8-6.

“We started off good, but they battled back like we did yesterday,” said Rosenberg. “We’ll come back out Thursday against Santa Barbara and get the win.”

Moorpark opens the second half of the WSC-North season against Santa Barbara City College at Raiders Stadium, Thursday at 2:30 p.m.