The Pirates baseball team outscored visiting Compton 4-2 in the final three innings, but it was not enough to overcome an early deficit as Ventura fell to the Tartars 9-6 Friday afternoon. Haiden Letzing was 2-4 with a walk, two runs scored and one run batted in and Peter Dufau was 2-3 with a double, two RBI and a run scored. Dylan Jackson recorded two RBI and two hits in the non-conference game for VC (10-12, 4-7). Luca Staiano had a solid start pitching seven innings and giving up three earned runs.
Compton got on the board with an unearned run in the top of the first inning. They followed that up with three unearned runs in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead.
VC responded in the bottom half of the frame with a pair of scores. Henry Borjas led off the inning with a walk and Letzing hit a one-out single. The two baserunners pulled off a double-steal before Jackson hit an RBI single to score Borjas. Dufau followed with a sacrifice fly to center to score Letzing and Ventura cut their deficit in half, 4-2.
The Tartars continued to score, however, plating three runs in the top of the fourth on a two-out bases-clearing triple for a 7-2 margin.
Ventura's offense came alive again after the seventh-inning stretch. Jacob Tostado led off with a single and Yuki Kawashima hit a one-out single. After a pitching change, Letzing hit an RBI single to score Tostado and the runners advanced 90 feet on the unsuccessful throw to the plate. Then, Jackson's fly ball out to center scored Kawashima to cut into the Tarter lead, 7-4.
Unfortunately, Compton had another answer as they scored twice in the top of the eighth inning.
VC continued the fight, however, scoring two more runs in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Letzing drew a one-out walk and Dufau followed one out later with an RBI double. Aaron McLeod then hit a pinch hit single to score Dufau before Compton closed out the Pirates.
Ventura closes out the two-game set with the Tarters with a 1:00 pm game at Compton on Saturday March 23.