The first inning looked rather promising for Moorpark, as they were able to get ahead early with an RBI triple from freshman shortstop, Shane Leong-Grieger. Leong-Grieger had an exceptional performance this game, tallying two hits while making stellar defensive plays.
“My game plan at the plate today was to just look for my pitch and and to fight off the close ones,” said Leong-Grieger. “As a team I think our confidence needs to improve, we scored in the first inning but couldn’t do much after. Winning each inning and not being content with our lead is something we really need to work on.”
Moopark’s starting pitcher, freshman Noah Balandran, was able to provide three scoreless innings while retiring the first eight hitters of the game. The Raiders ran into some trouble in the 4th inning however, as they allowed East Los Angeles to secure a 4-3 lead. Balandran concluded his day on the mound with six innings pitched and five earned runs, while striking out two and also walking one.
Next in line to take over Moorpark’s pitching duties was right hander Brendan Klugman. Klugman was able to complete his first inning of work, but ran into some trouble in the 8th inning and was relieved by left hander Parker Almeida. Klugman finished with 1.1 innings pitched and 4 earned runs allowed. Almeida finished off the 8th inning and pitched the 9th inning as well, while ending his day on the mound with 1.2 innings pitched, no earned runs and one walk.
While Moorpark was able to scrape together a few more runs throughout the game, they could not contain their opponents offense as East Los Angeles ended up victorious in this matchup by a score of 12-6.
East Los Angeles relief pitcher Alexander Castellanos played a key role in the victory, providing 3 innings of work while allowing two runs and striking out four.
“Today I was just trying to attack the hitters getting ahead in the count and not falling behind,” said Castellanos. “Once I got into my third inning my arm started to get pretty tired, so I focused more on my mechanics from that point on.”
After the game, Moorpark head coach Mario Porto discussed what the team needs to do moving forward when they have leads early in the game.
“It’s all in the head,” said Porto. “It’s not easy to win, and when you have a lead like that early you need to add onto it, or what we call it stepping on their necks. The first few innings we swung the bat really well but later on we got careless and swung at some bad pitches. These other teams aren’t going to quit when they’re down so we need to keep applying pressure on them.”
This loss brought Moorpark’s losing streak to six games, bringing them to an overall record of 1-6. Moorpark would go onto lose the following game versus East Los Angeles College on Feb. 10 14-2, but would bounce back to win versus LA Harbor College on Feb. 12 7-1. The Raiders will take on LA Valley College on Feb. 15 at 2 P.M.
