Pirates Come Back from Six Down for Victory

The Pirate baseball team trailed visiting Moorpark 6-0 in the middle of the third inning before rallying for a 14-9 victory over the Raiders Thursday. John Oleson paced the VC offense with five of the team's 19 hits with four runs batted in and a run scored while Casey Turturici had four hits, two of them doubles, with an RBI and a run scored. JR Godinez had three hits and scored four times and Julien Monks also recorded three hits, including a double, with three runs scored.

Moorpark jumped all over the Pirates early with a six-run third inning to take a 6-0 lead. 

However, as the saying goes, anything can happen in JC baseball, and it did again. Ventura scored 12 runs over the next four frames en rout to their come-from-behind win.

VC started the comeback in the bottom of the third when Oleson singled and Nick Schnopp followed with a two-out triple.

In the fourth inning, the Pirates rallied for another four runs to cut the deficit to one, 6-5. Monks had a one-out walk and KJ Moo-Young followed with a single. Both runners moved ahead 90 feet on a passed ball before Godinez singled to score Monks. Reiss Calvin came up next and had a two-RBI single and advanced to second on an error after a pitching change. Oleson then hit an RBI double to score Calvin.

After yielding a score to the Raiders, the Pirates took the lead with another four runs in the fifth inning. Andrew Savage was hit by a pitch, then sacrificed to second by Ramon Torres. Monks followed with a run-scoring double, moving to third on a fly-ball out. After another pitching change, Monks scored on a passed ball followed by walks to Godinez and Calvin. Oleson singled to bring home Godinez and Turturici doubled home Calvin for a 9-7 Pirate advantage.

Ventura continued the onslaught with a three-run sixth. With two outs, Monks hit a single and stole second and Moo-Young drew a base on balls. Godinez singled home Monks before stealing second. Calvin was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Oleson smacked a key two-run single to make it 12-7 for VC.

Moorpark plated single runs in the seventh and eighth, but the Pirates were able to match each score. In the seventh, Savage hit a sacrifice fly to score Turturici, and in the eighth, Godinez scored on a double-steal attempt after Calvin was caught stealing at second base. 

Sebastian Garcia came on in the ninth inning to record three straight put-outs to preserve the 14-9 victory.

The win is Ventura's eighth straight triumph as they move to 17-13 overall, 12-5 in Western State Conference play.

VC and Moorpark will square off in the final contest of the three-game set on Saturday April 9 in Moorpark.