Considering his last name is Spanish for “marksman”, Bradley Tirador was appropriately on-target in Tuesday’s 2-0 home baseball win against Ventura.
Considering how the Dos Pueblos offense has been, it’s a good thing Tirador was hitting the bull’s eye.
The junior hurler struck out four and scattered four singles in 5 2/3 innings of work while the Chargers squeezed their runs out of just four hits on a windy, dusty day out in Goleta.
“If our hitting was there this would have been a lot easier, but we like to make things tough on ourselves,” said coach Nate Mendoza. “My hat’s off to our pitchers, once again.”
Tyler McGaughey relieved Tirador with runners on first and second and two outs in the sixth, getting out of the inning before striking out the side in the seventh to close it out.
Every game carries huge importance at this point in the season because of the remarkable parity in the Channel League. Each of the league’s five teams carried a 2-2 conference record into Tuesday’s games.
“It’s anyone’s game in this league, and once we get our bats going I think we’ll be unstoppable,” said McGaughey. “We have really good hitters on this team and some of them have been in little slumps, but they’ll come out of it.”
A sacrifice fly from senior Nate Hart scored Evan Glick in the third inning, and a big double from Dane Limosnero scored Michael Spiritosanto in the fourth. Robert Vickers knocked a double for the game’s only other extra-base hit.
“Every game is so, so, so important. It’s going to make for a very interesting finish in the league… Like I said, hopefully our offense wakes up,” said Mendoza.
The Chargers now begin a stretch of four games in three days as they head up to the San Luis Obispo Tournament, with a pair of games against Foothill and Mission Prep on tap for Wednesday afternoon and evening.
Mendoza said he’s not sure how he’s going to get together enough arms to supply his team’s pitching needs in the tournament, but McGaughey thinks it’s just the kind of 3-day stretch that DP needs.
“This tournament is really going to help us with our bats,” he said. “I feel like we’re going to feed off of it and hopefully take it into league against Buena next week.”
DOS PUEBLOS 2, VENTURA 0
Ventura…000 000 0 — 0 4 1
Dos Pueblos…001 100 X — 2 4 2
Griffith, Doherty (6); Tirador, McGaughey (6) and Salas.
2B — DP: Vickers, Limosnero.
Team Records — V 5-12, 2-3; DP 6-8, 3-2.
