The Pirate baseball team gave up one big inning Wednesday, yielding four runs to Moorpark in the bottom of the fourth, and that was enough to seal their fate in the 5-2 setback in the East County. Reiss Calvin was 2-3 with an RBI to lead the Pirate offense and Gage Allen hit a double and scored a run. Hunter Jones pitched 3.2 innings of relief to give the Pirates a chance, but VC (5-9, 1-1) was unable to come up with the clutch hit in the loss.
The game was a pitchers' duel early on, with the game remaining scoreless through the middle of the fourth inning. VC starter Wilson Spinks allowed two hits over the first three frames before things went south in the fourth with the Raiders scoring four runs.
MC added another score in the fifth for a 5-0 lead.
Ventura finally got on the board in the top of the seventh inning. Haiden Letzing led off the frame with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. He then went to third on Andrew Savage's ground ball out before scoring on Christian Herrera's sacrifice fly.
The Pirates got another run back in the eighth. Allen led off with a double and came home one out later on a single by Calvin.
In the ninth inning, Ventura brought the tying-run to the plate with one out, but they could not find the clutch hit to overcome their deficit.
Connor Hickey, Caden Stillwell and Yuki Kawashima all had hits in the game, but the Pirates were unable to parlay them into rallies.
The Pirates and Raiders are slated to complete their three game set on Saturday Feb. 25 at Pirate Park.