Pirates Drop Home Decision to Cuesta

The VC baseball team was tied with visiting Cuesta late before the Cougars rallied to hand the Pirates a 7-4 setback at Pirate Park Tuesday. Henry Borjas had a pair of singles and a run scored while Mason Reid hit a two-RBI single for Ventura (7-7, 1-3). Bryce Zavala pitched three perfect innings out of the bullpen with four strikeouts.

Cuesta took the early advantage with a four-run second inning.

The Pirates began their comeback in the bottom of the third with a pair of scores. With two outs Dylan Jackson walked and moved ahead to second and third on a pair of wild pitches. Haiden Letzing and Bryce Elias also walked to load the bases before Reid knocked in two runs with a single.

Borjas singled in the top of the fifth, eventually stealing third base and scoring on Letzing's groundout to shortstop to pull Ventura to within 4-3.

The Pirates tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. David King hit a one-out single and Mitchell Collins was hit by a pitch. One out later Brandon Contreras hit an RBI single to score King and knot the score at 4-4.

Unfortunately, Cuesta rallied for three runs in the top of the eighth inning to take the game 7-4.

Pirate pitching only yielded six hits and three walks in the game, but two of the hits were two-run home runs and two were RBI doubles. Domingo Gaxiola uncharacteristically gave up the game-winning rally suffering his first loss of the season against three wins.

Ventura and Cuesta will continue their three-game set on Thursday Feb. 29 in San Luis Obispo. The teams return to Pirate Park for the series finale on Saturday March 2.