Jackson Simonsgaard sure did treat the home fans to a gem. The freshman left-hander pitched seven innings of one-hit, shutout baseball with 11 strikeouts to lead Ventura to a 4-0 victory over West Hills College in VC's 2015 home opener. Simonsgaard faced two batters over the minimum in his outing, throwing 95 pitches to pick up the win.
The Pirates broke a scoreless tie with three runs in the fifth inning. With one out, Taylor Campos and Ryan Coker both walked. Freshman Adisson Pelupessy singled to right field to bring in Campos. on the next pitch, both runners advanced with stolen bases, then Bradley Fullerton executed a perfect squeeze bunt. Coker scored on the play, and as the West Hills pitcher threw wide to first base, Pelupessy also came around to score. Fullerton ended up at second base at the conclusion of the play.
VC added another run in the bottom of the sixth when Codi Santana, who reached base on a double, scored when Campos reached base on an error.
That was more than enough for Simonsgaard who was lights-out all afternoon. Alex Van Es followed up with two scoreless innings in relief to preserve the victory for VC (1-4).
Santana led the Pirate offense with a pair of hits, both doubles, and a run scored while Pelupessy had one hit, one RBI, and scored a run.
The Pirates will host West Hills again on Saturday Feb. 7 in a 1:00 pm contest.