With a score more indicative of a football game, the Ventura College baseball team scored a pair of touchdowns with three field goals to defeat West Los Angeles 23-10 Tuesday afternoon in Culver City. KJ Moo-Young had four hits, including a double, with four runs scored and four runs batted in to lead VC's 19-hit attack against the Wildcats. Jake Read picked up the win on the mound despite yielding seven runs over five innings of work with six strikeouts.
JR Godinez scored a run for the Pirates (18-14, 12-6) in the first inning after reaching base on an error. Godinez moved to second on an error, and headed to third on a single by Reiss Calvin and scored on an error on a pick-off attempt by the catcher.
West LA came back with two scores in the bottom half of the frame to lead , however briefly, 2-1.
VC took the lead for good with a three-run second inning. Ramon Torres scored on an RBI double by Julien Monks, who then scored on a single by Moo-Young. The Pirates made it 4-2 when Moo-young scored on a double-steal attempt on which Godinez was caught stealing at second base.
Ventura then exploded for seven runs in the top of the fourth. Moo-young, Godinez and Calvin all singled to lead things off to score a run, and John Oleson hit a fourth straight single to score Godinez. Nick Schnopp hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Calvin, and Oleson scored on another Wildcat error on the play. Torres hit a two-out triple to score Casey Turturici, Monks walked, and Moo-young hit an RBI single to score Torres. Monks then scored on a wild pitch to make the score 11-2.
Schnopp had a two-RBI single in the fifth to extend the Pirate lead before West LA scored four runs in the bottom half of the frame.
The Pirates then scored five more runs in the seventh inning with Moo-Young delivering the big hit, a two-run double.
VC put up another five-spot in the eighth, with a two-RBI double by Godinez and a Connor Vogel reaching base on an error to score two more runs for a 23-7 advantage.
The Pirates gave up a field goal in the eighth inning, but were still able to post the wild 23-10 victory.
Ryan Sweeney pitched two innings of scoreless relief out of the bull pen with a pair of K's and Logan Knight closed out the game with a scoreless ninth.
Ventura will next travel to Los Angeles Harbor on Thursday April 14 for a 2:30 pm game.