It was one of those days at the ballpark for the Pirates. VC fell behind early against visiting Cerritos and could not make a comeback in their 20-7 defeat at the hands of the Falcons. Sam Langler had three hits with a run scored while Steele Ledford had two runs batted in for the Pirates (4-4). Rudy Aguilar, Eric Thrower and TJ Foreman each recorded two base hits in the game.
Ventura go off to a difficult start, giving up eight runs in the top of the first inning. They came back to score once in the bottom half of the frame when Aguilar doubled home Chris McKee, but the day would get much longer.
The Pirates gave up two in the second and two in the third before Ledford batted in Foreman in the fourth.
Cerritos continued their strong day with three more runs in the fifth inning before the Ventura bats woke up with five runs in the bottom of the inning. A Shane Gipson walk, singles by Thrower and Foreman, a fielder's choice by Ledford, and a sacrifice fly by Tommy Gibbons-Matsuyama scored the VC runs.
Cerritos then scored four runs in the sixth and one more in the eighth for the final margin.
The Pirates begin a seven-game stretch away from home on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 16 and 17 wth a double-header and single game, respectively, at Monterey Peninsula.