On Saturday, Feb. 22, the Moorpark College baseball team looked to win their series against the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros in the rubber match. Coming into this game, the Raiders had won three of their last five games and were looking to make a statement with a victory.
Sophomore pitcher Caelan Eisenstein toed the rubber as he threw the first pitch at 1 p.m. Immediately, control issues were present after he issued walks to the first two Vaquero batters. Facing his third batter of the inning, Eisenstein caught too much of the plate and gave up an RBI single as the Vaqueros took an early 1-0 lead.
Eisenstein would be unable to make it out of the inning after handing out two more free passes, one of which would allow another run. After recording his first strikeout, a different sophomore pitcher, Matthew Acosta, relieved him.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, Acosta could not build off his last three performances in which he did not allow an earned run. Like Eisenstein, Acosta struggled with his control, allowing a run to score on a passed ball and giving up a three-run double. Acosta eventually made it out of the inning, but not before the score was 6-0 in favor of the visiting Vaqueros.
Looking to answer the deficit, freshman outfielder Max Fernandez laced a ball into left field for a leadoff single. After the Vaqueros pitcher walked the next batter, freshman Nate Kaczynski stepped into the batter’s box with runners on first and second.
Kaczynski showed patience as he worked deep in the count before hammering a pitch to deep left-center field for a two-run triple. This put the Raiders on the board and trimmed the deficit to 6-2. Kaczynski shared his thoughts on the at-bat.
“I was really sitting fastball. I got deep in the count which I wanted to,” Kaczynski said. “Basically, I was sitting middle out because I knew I wasn’t going to get anything inside. Once I got that middle out fastball, I knew I was going to attack it right away.”
The next batter, Nate Lajoie, hit a single that made its way through the infield, allowing Kaczynski to touch home. The next two Raiders would strikeout, but the deficit had been trimmed in half as the Vaqueros now clung to a 6-3 lead at the end of the first inning.
The second inning started with another pitching change as sophomore Sergio Ruiz relieved Acosta. After walking the first two batters he faced, head coach Mario Porto went back to his bullpen. Porto, hoping to ride the hot hand, brought Kaczynski in from centerfield to take the mound.
While Kaczynski could not translate his skills from the batter’s box to the mound, he did provide the Raiders with length. Kaczynski retired nine batters while tallying two strikeouts, five earned runs, and three walks.
By the time Kaczynski was relieved in the top of the fifth inning, the score had ballooned to a 14-4 Santa Barbara lead. Coming in for the second time in this series was freshman utility man Jadon Onaca.
In his best outing of the season, Onaca pitched two scoreless innings, gave up only one hit, and recorded four strikeouts. Onaca reflected on his season-best performance after the game.
“Honestly, I just try to get out there and set an example for my guys and try to get them to push themselves, throw some more strikes, and get out there and just do the best that they can,” Onaca said.
After the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings went scoreless, the Raiders looked to try and mount a late comeback. Michael Rizzoti would single in a run at the bottom of the eighth, just for the Vaqueros to add a run at the top of the ninth.
Going into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Raiders were down 15-5, but were able to score two runs on a wild pitch and a walk to end the game with a 15-7 final in favor of the Santa Barbara Vaqueros.
Porto shared his postgame thoughts after the tough loss.
“Can’t walk people. We had thirteen walks; that was it right there in a nutshell,” Porto said.
With this loss, the Raiders dropped to 1-2 in conference play and 3-8 overall. For more news on Raider Baseball and their full schedule, click here.
