In a match up of two ranked So Cal teams the Ventura College baseball team fell 10-5 to Cuesta on the road in San Luis Obispo. On a soggy field the Pirates were not able to keep pace with the Cougars offensive attack. Tony Fonzo collected three hits in four trips to the plate and drove in one run. Adisson Pelupessy added two hits including an rbi double, scored one run and threw an inning of scoreless relief with one strikeout.
Ventura (11-8, 5-3) had run off four straight wins in conference play to push to the top of the Western State Conference North early in the season. Following a shut out win over Cuesta earlier in the week VC looked to pick up their fifth straight win. The Cougars though came out hot early scoring six runs over the first three innings. The Pirates offense loaded the bases in the first, but was unable to score a run. Then in the second the Pirates capitalized with three runs to tie the score. Cuesta got three more in third inning to go up 6-3 when Ventura scored two in the fourth to cut back into the Cougars advantage. Cuesta immediately responded with two more in the bottom of the fourth and VC was unable to get back in the game. Cuesta plated two more in the eighth inning to extend their advantage to 10-5, which was the final.
The Pirates got scoreless innings of relief from David Huges, Carlos Soto and Pelupessy. Joey Contreras entered in the eighth inning with one out and retired the two hitters he faced to stop the Cougars from scoring additional runs.
Ventura will travel to Santa Barbara to take on Santa Barbara City College on Tuesday Mar. 15 for a 2:30 pm game then host the Vaqueros on Thursday Mar. 17 for another 2:00 pm game.