It was the Pirates against the Pirates Saturday afternoon as Ventura traveled south to Orange Coast for a baseball match-up. The VC Pirates were unable to make an early 5-1 lead hold up as the OCC Pirates came away with the 16-6 victory. Dayton Provost and AJ Medrano each had a pair of hits for Ventura (14-14, 4-4) while TJ Foreman had three runs batted in and scored twice. Ryker Kennepohl started on the mound for VC, pitching into the fifth inning and giving up four runs.
Orange Coast took the early lead with a home run in the bottom of the first inning, and Ventura came back with a four-run third frame. Medrano, Eric Thrower and Chris McKee all singled to load the bases with no outs before Foreman knocked in two runs with a single. Provost then reached on a fielder's choice to score McKee and Rudy Aguilar had a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Foreman.
VC got one more run in the top of the fourth. JT Heade struck out, but reached base on a wild pitch and Medrano followed with a single. Thrower sacrificed the runners to second and third before McKee loaded the bases reaching on a fielder's choice. Foreman then hit a ground ball resulting in an out at second base, but also scoring Heade for a 5-1 Ventura advantage in the middle of the fourth.
At that point, the OCC bats came to life, scoring three runs in the fourth, and three more in the fifth to take a 7-5 advantage. VC managed a run in the seventh when Fabian De La Barcena hit a sacrifice fly to score Foreman, but Orange Coast plated three more runs in the bottom of the seventh, and added six more in the eighth to put the game away.
Ventura returns to Western State Conference North Division action on Tuesday April 3 at Santa Barbara. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 pm at Pershing Park.