The Ventura College baseball team matched up with first place Cuesta and were unable to solve their ace in a 5-1 loss. Ventura managed just three hits off of the Cuesta starter and plated just one run with Erick Allegro scoring the one run. Cody Pope had a single and reached base via a hit by pitch. Cody Durfee had a double.
Ventura (17-14, 10-9) sits in third place in the ultra competitive Western State Conference North with just six games to play. They will face off with first place Cuesta followed by second place Santa Barbara over their next four games. VC fell behind 2-0 after three innings when Cuesta scored two on a single. The Pirates picked back into the game with one run in the fifth inning after an Allegro lead off single, a Pope hit by pitch and then a Evyn Yamaguchi SAC bunt allowed Allegro to score on a wild pitch. VC had only one other scoring threat when Cuesta ace Brandon Jenkins induced an inning ending double play to snuff out the Pirate rally in the seventh inning after Cuesta had gone up 5-1 with three runs in the top half of the seventh.
Ray Lambert started for the Pirates and went four innings with just five hits allowed and five strikeouts allowing two runs. Joey Contreras followed him with two scoreless innings of relief. Brandon Ward pitched the eighth and ninth allowing no runs with one strikeout.
Ventura will travel to Cuesta to wrap up their season series on Thursday Apr. 21 for a 2:30 pm game. They will then begin their final two games of the year with Santa Barbara on Saturday Apr. 23 with a 1:00 pm game in Santa Barbara.