Ventura’s Eric Hernandez threw a seven-hit complete game on Tuesday to outduel Brendon Shoemake and hand SBCC a 2-1 loss in its WSC North baseball opener at Pershing Park.
Hernandez allowed one run on seven singles with two walks and no strikeouts. Shoemake went 6 1/3 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits with four strikeouts and four walks. He also had three wild pitches.
“Shoemake threw the ball very well and Ventura played very good defense behind their guy,” said SBCC coach Jeff Walker. “If we catch a ground ball and make an out, things could have been different. They scored the winning run on a throw-back to first base that we dropped.
“If we had run the bases a little bit more intelligently … it’s one of those things. It’s getting old to hear but we beat ourselves again today. Give credit to their guy, he threw strikes and kept us off balance.”
The Vaqueros (6-8, 0-1) took a 1-0 lead in the second on single by Tony Simon, a sacrifice and an RBI single from Tyler Sharpe. The Pirates (7-8, 1-0) tied it in the fourth when Hayden Cronendale got to third on a walk, a wild pitch and a stolen base, then scored on Wesley Solomon’s double to the right-field fence.
Solomon was 4-4 and scored the game-winning run in the seventh. He hit a leadoff single, stole second, went to third on an error and scored an unearned run when Simon dropped a throw from catcher Jared Dinges, who was trying to pick a runner off first base.
Simon and Sharpe each had two hits for the Vaqueros.
The Vaqueros were playing without their leading hitter, Zach Zehner (.447 average), who suffered an injury in practice and is expected to miss at least three games.
“Zach has been the only guy who’s been consistently hitting,” said Walker. “We got guys on base, we’re just searching for that guy who wants to get a big hit with runners on base.”
Jared Dinges singled with one out in the ninth but Cory Bloom popped out to shortstop and pinch-runner Brett Sesma was picked off first base to end the game.
It was the fourth straight win for Ventura and fourth consecutive loss by the Vaqueros.
SBCC travels to Ventura for a rematch on Thursday at 2 p.m.
VENTURA 2, SBCC 1
Ventura ……. 000 100 100 — 2 6 0
SBCC ………. 010 010 000 — 1 7 3
Hernandez and Burke; Shoemake, Massengale (7) and Dinges. W–Hernandez 2-0. L–Shoemake 1-1.
2B–V: Solomon
