The Pirate baseball team dropped to third place, a game out of first, with an 8-3 loss to visiting Allan Hancock College Thursday at Pirate Park. Dayton Provost had a pair of hits with two RBI while Chris McKee also recorded two singles and scored twice. Fabian De La Barcena had the only extra base it for VC (19-18, 9-8), a fourth-inning triple.
Hancock scored one run in the top of the first, and took a 3-0 lead with another pair of runs in the fourth. THey got two more in the fifth for a 5-0 advantage.
The Pirates came back with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. McKee and TJ Foreman led off with singles, then Steele Ledford sacrificed them over to second and third. Provost singled to score McKee, and Rudy Aguilar hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Foreman.
The Bulldogs scored another run before the seventh-inning stretch, and VC answered with a score in the bottom half of the frame. McKee led off with a single and stole second before Foreman drew a base on balls. After a line-out, Ledford had an RBI single to pull the Pirates to within 6-3.
AHC plated a couple of insurance runs in the eighth inning to set the final margin at 8-3.
Blake Campbell made the start on the hill for Ventura, pitching five complete innings and taking the loss. Sal Delgado had a scoreless inning of relief for the Pirates.
Ventura falls into a third place tie with Hancock, one game behind conference leading Moorpark and half a game behind second place Santa Barbara. Ventura next travels to Santa Maria to complete the season series with the Bulldogs on Saturday April 21, with a 1:00 pm scheduled game time.