The Ventura College baseball team got six innings of three-hit, shutout pitching from Dylan Francis and the T.J. Durfee had an RBI double to lead Ventura to a 5-2 victory at Oxnard Saturday afternoon. Francis struck out six batters in picking up the win and Taylor Campos the 1.2 innings of scoreless relief for the save. VC (17-10, 7-5) made the most of OC defensive miscues, scoring three unearned runs in securing the season sweep against the Condors.
VC took an early 1-0 lead as a gift from the hosts. Chris McKee walked to open the game and Rodolfo Aguilar reached base on an error. The two advanced 90 feet on a passed ball, and Blake Chiaramonte scored McKee with a sacrifice fly for the 1-0 Pirate advantage.
Ventura doubled its lead in the fourth inning. With one out, Elijah Alexander was hit by a pitch and advanced to second base on a single by Kaden Betsch. Alexander stole third base, and came home on Nick Bero's squeeze bunt.
In the seventh inning, the Pirates added to their lead. With two outs, Aguilar reached base on an error, and came around to score when Chiaramonte also got on board thanks to a COndor error in the field.
The Condors tried to make a game of it with a run in the bottom half of the seventh, and another in the eighth, but VC countered with two insurance runs in the ninth frame.
Bero led off with a single, and was replaced by pinch runner Eric Thrower. Shane Gipson sacrificed Thrower to second and Durfee brought him home with a double. Durfee advanced to third on an error and came home to score on Aguilar's single.
Campos struck out two batters in the bottom of the ninth to close the door on the 5-2 Pirate victory.
VC will return to Pirate Park on Tuesday April 4, hosting Moorpark in a 2:30 pm contest.