The Pirate baseball team traveled to San Luis Obispo Thursday, falling to Cuesta 9-4. Haiden Letzing, Brandon Contreras and Peter Dufau all had two hits each for VC. Contreras and Bryce Elias each recorded extra-base hits in the game and Dufau had a pair of runs batted in.
The Cougars scored first, taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. VC responded with a run in the top of the second when Elias led off with a double and Dufau followed that up with an RBI single.
Cuesta then took control of the game with two runs each in the bottom of the second and third frames, another run in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
Ventura (7-8, 1-4) got some offense going in the top of the sixth. Contreras doubled to lead off the at-bat and Letzing singled one out later to move Contreras to third. Elias followed with a walk to load the bases and Dufau hit a sacrifice fly to center to score a run. Mason Reid then walked to re-load the diamond before a change on the mound for Cuesta. During the next batter, the new pitcher balked the runners ahead one base forcing Letzing home to score.
It the top of the seventh, Yuki Kawashima walked to open the frame and came around to score on Hetzing's two-out RBI single to set the final margin.
Ventura will close out its three-game series with Cuesta at home on Saturday March 2 at 12:00 pm.