The Ventura College baseball team was on its way to a ninth straight win on Saturday before Moorpark scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth. The Pirates dropped the 8-7 decision to the Raiders, their first setback in four weeks. JR Godinez had three hits, scored three runs and knocked in another to lead the offense for VC (17-14, 12-6) while Julien Monks scored a pair of runs. Cooper Smith pitched into the seventh inning giving up three runs, two earned, and did not factor in the decision.
The Pirates started the game off with back-to-back singles by Godinez and Reiss Calvin. Godinez then scored when John Oleson hit into a double play to give VC the early edge.
Moorpark answered, however, with an unearned run on a Ventura error with two outs.
In the top of the third, VC scored two more runs. KJ Moo-Young and Godinez both drew walks with one out, and moved ahead 90 feet on a balk. Moo-Young scored on Calvin's groundout to shortstop and Oleson singled to knock in Godinez for a 3-1 Pirate lead.
Nick Schnopp led off the fourth inning for Ventura with a double, followed by an RBI single by Andrew Savage to make it 4-1.
Godinez added to the lead in the fifth with a lead-off single, scoring three batters later on a single by Casey Turturici.
The Pirates made it 6-1 in the top of the sixth inning. With one out, Monks walked and Moo-Young singled. Godinez then reached base on an error to score Monks.
The Moorpark bats started to heat up in the seventh inning, scoring a pair of runs to make it 6-3.
VC got one of the runs back in the top of the eighth when Godinez singled home Monks, but the 7-3 margin turned out to not be enough.
The Raiders rallied for five runs in the bottom of the frame, all unearned and coming across the plate with two outs, as VC dropped the 9-7 decision in the series finale.
After the first round of Western State Conference games, the Pirates are in third place, two games behind Cuesta and a game behind second-place Santa Barbara, although the Cougars and Vaqueros still have two games remaining n their final first-round series.
the Pirates next travel to West Los Angeles on Tuesday April 12 for a non-conference match-up.