Pirates Swept by Bulldogs in Twin-Bill

The VC baseball team dropped a pair of games to the visiting Allan Hancock Bulldogs Thursday at Pirate Park. Ventura fell in the first contest 8-0 before losing the nightcap 13-7. Elijah Maris had a pair of hits in the opener while JR Godinez was 2-4 with three runs batted in and Ramon Torres was 2-4 with two runs scored in game two.

Ventura 0, Allan Hancock 8

The Pirates had baserunners in six of the seven innings, but could not produce the key hit to record a score in the shutout loss. Hancock slowly built their lead with a run in the second, two more in the fourth and one in the fifth before breaking the game open with three runs in the top of the sixth inning.  They added another run in the seventh for the final margin.

Godinez reached base in the first inning on a fielder's choice and stole second. With two outs he went to third on a wild pitch, but he Pirates stranded the runner 90 feet from home. VC was caught stealing twice in the second inning and still left a air of runners on base, and Maris singled in the third. Ventura had two runners on with one out in the fourth and also left them on base.  

Ventura was limited to just six hits in the game.

Max Flame pitched into the sixth inning in taking the loss. The Pirate started gave up seven runs, four earned, with five strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work. Oscar Magana finished the game on the mound for VC.

Ventura 7, Allan Hancock 13

The Pirates fell behind 5-0 after two innings in the nightcap, but rebounded with two runs each in the third and fourth frames.

In the bottom of the third, Torres hit a two-out pinch-hit single and Anthony Arancibia-Mundy drew a walk. Godinez followed with a bases-clearing triple to make the score 5-2.

In the fourth, the Pirates plated a pair of runs once again to pull to within 5-4. The big hit in the inning was a two-RBI single by Connor Laeng, scoring Julien Monks and Garrick Levesque.

Hancock broke the game open in the fifth, however, posting a four-spot on the line score. VC scores one in the bottom half of the inning when Godinez crossed the plate after a single, a wild pitch, a stolen base, and a groundout by Maris.

Any hopes of a VC comeback were dashed in the sixth inning when the Bulldogs scored four more runs to make it 13-5.

VC scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth on sacrifice flies by Godinez and Maris, but it was not enough in the 13-7 loss.

Jake Read took the loss in the start on the mound for the Pirates, and he was followed by a succession of six more VC pitchers in the game.

Ventura will finish the season series with Hancock with a double-header in Santa Maria on Saturday May 9.