The Carpinteria baseball team started its inaugural Tri-Valley League campaign on the right foot on Tuesday, overcoming a wet Tuesday afternoon to defeat visiting Oak Park 8-5.
Nathan Saito pitched a complete game, mowing down nine Oak Park batters for his third victory of the season and added two hits and two RBIs at the plate. Kyle Geary spanked a solo home run in the first inning for one of his two hits to go with 2 runs scored.
“It was pretty bad conditions there for awhile but then there at the end it was pretty dry,” recalled Carpinteria head coach, noting how both teams have to deal with the conditions.
The Warriors seemed to handle it a little better at least for a day, taking advantage of a walk and three Oak Park errors to score three runs in the fourth inning and grab their first lead of the game.
Robert Thornton came through with the big hit timing wise, stroking a two-RBI double in the sixth inning that put the Warriors up 8-4.
Carpinteria (8-3, 1-0) travels to Oak Park on Thursday to finish the Tri-Valley home-and-away matchup.
CARPINTERIA 8, OAK PARK 5
Oak Park 201 010 1 – 5 7 4
Carpinteria 100 322 X – 8 7 2
OP – Whitaker Cohen (5), and Hagen, and Whitaker. Carp – Saito , and D. Carrillo. WP – Saito (3-1). LP -Whitaker. 2B – C 1 (Thornton). HR – OP 2 (Langlois, 3rd inn, none on, and, Hagen 1st inn, 1 on) C 1 (Geary 1st, none on).
