In the second game of a three game road trip the Ventura College baseball team took on So Cal preseason No. 3-ranked Cypress Chargers and took home a 4-3 victory. Ray Lambert went 8.1 innings scattering nine hits on the day and struck out seven Chargers in picking up his first victory of the season. Robert Stephan collected two hits and drove in two runs including the game winning run in the 7th inning. Blake Diaz had two hits and an rbi.
Starting a back to back series with Cypress College the perennial Orange Empire power Ventura looked to extend a two game winning streak. The Pirates fell behind early when Cypress scored three runs in the third inning on the VC defense which struggled with the strong winds. Lambert settled in after the rough inning and produced to produce 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball to allow the Pirates a chance to rally.
Trailing 3-0, Vinny Avila slugged a one out double over the leftfielders head and scored on a Bryson Wallet bunt which the Cypress pitcher threw away. Wallet came around to score on a Blake Diaz rbi single. Then in the seventh inning with one out, Wallet and Diaz executed a double steal and both scored when Stephan collected a two out rbi single to put the Pirates up 4-3.
Clinging to a one run lead the Pirate defense and pitching staff were able to hold off the Chargers rally attempt. After retiring the first hitter of the ninth inning Lambert allowed a one out walk and was replaced by the VC closer Adisson Pelupessy. Following another one out walk Pelupessy was able to retire the Chargers three and four hitters on a pair of fly ball outs to centerfield to claim the victory. Lambert is now 1-1 on the season and Pelupessy notched his first save of the season.
Ventura will finish up their three game road trip with a 12:00 pm match up with Cypress on Saturday Feb. 6. They will then head out for three more road games the following week starting with a Thursday Feb. 11 game at Citrus College.