7th Inning Rally Propels VC to Victory

The Ventura College baseball team rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, breaking open a 1-1 tie leading to a 4-3 victory over Citrus Saturday afternoon at Pirate Park. Blake Campbell allowed just one run over five innings of work as the starter and Noah Bullard picked up the win with three innings of scoreless relief. Gabe Baldovino had four hits on the day, including a triple and a double, and scored the go-ahead run in the late rally. Omar Gastelum was 2-3 with a double, one run scored and one run batted in. Riley Langerman scored twice in the game.

Ventura (4-3) jumped on top in the bottom of the third inning. Langerman had a one-out double and moved to third on a single by Tommy Gibbons-Matsuyama. One out later Langerman scored on a wild pitch for the 1-0 advantage.

Citrus answered in the next half inning with one swing of the bat and the game was tied at 1-1.

The Pirates rallied in the bottom of the seventh with three unearned runs. Baldovino singled and Langerman reached base on an error. The two advanced 90 feet on a wild pitch and Gibbons-Matsuyama had a sacrifice fly to center to score Baldovino. Now with two outs, Gastelum doubled home Langerman, and back-to-back singles by Alejandro Soto and Anthony Chavez brought home Gastelum for the 4-1 Pirate lead.

Citrus took advantage of a pair of Pirate errors to score twice in the top of the ninth, but Tyler Kennedy was able to get the extra outs to retire the side for the save. 

VC completes the two-game series with the Owls with a road date at Citrus on Tuesday Feb. 11. First pitch in Glendora is slated for 2:00 pm.