The VC baseball team held a 6-3 lead through five innings, but could not hang on as visiting Glendale scored 11 times in the final four frames to down the Pirates 14-7 Thursday afternoon. Lead-off hitter Reiss Calvin had a pair of hits, including a double, and scored two runs, and John Oleson was 2-4 with two runs batted in, two stolen bases and two runs scored in the setback. Starter Jake Read threw five complete innings, giving up three runs on six hits but did not factor into the decision.
The Pirates bounced back after giving up three runs to the Vaqueros in the top of the third inning. In the bottom half of the frame, KJ Moo-Young led off with a single and was thrown out at third when Calvin doubled. JR Godinez grounded out to the right side to move Calvin to third and Oleson followed with an RBI single. After Oleson stole second, Casey Turturici produced an RBI single, moved to second when Andrew Savage drew a walk, and both runners advanced 90 feet on a wild pitch. Anthony Arancibia-Mundy came up with another two-out single to score Oleson and the Pirates evened the score.
VC took the lead with a 3-run fifth inning. Calvin led off with a single, and scored when Godinez reached base on a throwing error on a bunt. Oleson singled to score Godinez, and Turturici had a base hit that moved Oleson to third. After a pitching change, Savage grounded out to the right side of the infield to score Oleson for a 6-3 Pirate advantage.
The wheels came off for Ventura in the next frame, however, as Glendale plated four scores, all with two outs, with the help of a pair of walks and a hit by pitch.
The Vaqueros scored three more in the top of the seventh before the Pirates stopped the bleeding with a run in the bottom half of the inning. Godinez led off with a single and later scored on a base hit by Savage, and VC trailed 10-7.
Any hope of a Pirate comeback was dashed in the ninth when Glendale scored four more times for the final 14-7 margin.
Turturici was 2-5 on the day with an RBI and a run scored and Savage produced two RBI. Gage Allen also had a pair of hits on the day. Reliever Livio Bundi pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball out of the pen.
The Pirates are right back at it on Friday Feb. 4, hosting Fullerton at 1:00 pm at Pirate Park.