Road Woes Continue for Ventura County Pirates

Pirates shortstop Angelo Aleman Slides into third base against the East LA Dodgers. Photo by Izzy De Souza

Coming off a high scoring affair Monday night, The Ventura County Pirates (3-9-1, 2-2 Best of the West) were not able to replicate their offensive performance as they were held to four hits, losing to the Inland Valley Pirates by a final score of 7-2 at Cal Poly Pomona Tuesday.

“We took too many quality pitches today,” Pirates Head Coach George Vranau said. “We created our own hole and gave the pitcher leverage over us.”

For Ventura County, RHP Brandon Doehne was set to make his second start of the young season. Doehne has found success so far but had to grind on Tuesday. Aside from a clean first inning, the rest of his outing was busy as he got into trouble in both the second and third inning, but he did a good job of minimizing the damage. Dohne finished his outing with 3 IP, 7H, 4ER and 2K.

Trailing 4-0 heading into the Top of the 4th, Ventura County grabbed two of those runs back from a two-out walk to left fielder Robbie Treto, followed by a two-run bomb by third baseman Darren Taylor making that his first homerun on the season. This cut Inland Valleys lead down to two.

Two-way freshman Brady Schrank provided a bright spot for the Pirates, shutting down the Inland Valley offense late in the game. Though the lights shine bright on his jersey when he entered in the 6th inning, Schrank’s pitching was lights-out on Tuesday. He started his outing with a walk but locked in quickly managing to retire the next 9 batters in order. Schrank attacked batters early making for weak contact. He finished his outing with 3IP, 0H and 0ER.

“Brady attacks the strike zone,” said Vranau. “He’s fearless on the mound, he went out there poised and completely in command.”

Unfortunately, The Ventura County Pirates did not add on any more runs after the home run by Taylor, dropping this game by a final score of 7-2.

Ventura County was supposed to be right back at it Thursday versus Conejo Oaks but that game has been canceled. Next game up will be Saturday, June 25 at 11am versus the So Cal Shepards at Los Angeles Valley College.. For more information visit the @vcountypirates on instagram, @vcountypirates on twitter, and @venturacountypirates on facebook.