The VC baseball team yielded a pair of big innings at Oxnard, falling to the Condors 16-8. First baseman Haiden Letzing had three hits and scored a pair of runs and Aaron McLeod recorded two hits with a run scored. Aiden DeMello pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the Pirates.
Ventura fell into a hole early giving up five runs in the bottom of the first inning.
The Condors led 6-0 when the Pirates got on the board in the top of the third. Yuki Kawashima walked with one out, then moved to second on a passed ball. He came around to score on Jacob Tostado's RBI single. Letzing followed with a single to move Tostado to third before Peter Dufau hitr a sacrifice fly to right field to score Tostado. VC trailed 6-2 after three complete.
Oxnard took full control with nine runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Bryce Elias knocked in Letzing with an RBI single in the fifth.
In the top of the sixth, back-to-back singles by McLeod and Henry Borjas led to a run when Mitchell Collins followed by reaching base on an error, scoring McLeod.
Defensively, the Pirates struggled on the day committing eight errors leading to nine unearned runs.
Ventura and Oxnard will square off in game two of the series on Thursday March 7 at Pirate Park. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 pm.