Canyons’ Woes Continue in Ventura

Even when College of the Canyons was firmly entrenched atop the Western State Conference baseball standings, Coach Len Mohney did not have an abundance of confidence in his pitching staff.

And now that the Cougars are struggling to keep pace with Ventura, Valley and Moorpark, Mohney is downright fearful.

“We’re in a scary situation every time we send a pitcher out there,” Mohney said. “We don’t have a stopper on this team. Maybe that’s why we can’t win any of the big games.”

Pitching is not Mohney’s only concern, however. Fielding is also a problem for the Cougars, who committed seven errors in a 9-3 WSC loss to host Ventura on Saturday.

“We have not put one game together all year where we have pitched, played defense and hit,” Mohney said.

To compound the Cougars’ problems, their last two losses have come against two of the top teams in the WSC--Valley and Ventura.

“We have not won a big game all year,” Mohney said. “The only reason we are close is because we haven’t lost to the bottom teams in the conference.”

Canyons (15-13, 8-4 in WSC play) has lost twice to Ventura to fall a game off the league lead and will face another contender when it travels to Moorpark on Thursday. Ventura (21-8, 9-3) has won two games in a row and five of its last six.

Mental mistakes and throwing errors cost Canyons on Saturday. The Cougars also made a costly baserunning error in the seventh inning when Adam Grant was picked off second base by Ventura catcher Tom Couture with two men on and none out.

Shane Espitia, pitching in relief of Dean McMillin, then walked Randy Cooper and Gary Morgan to load the bases. After Chris Joy struck out, the Cougars scored a run on a passed ball before Ernie Perez grounded out to end the inning.

“That was a big mental breakdown for us to get picked off and a real killer to only get one run in that inning,” Mohney said.

Ventura, leading 4-3 after thwarting the Cougars in the seventh, rallied for three runs on two hits and two Cougar errors in the home half of the inning and added two more runs in the eighth to clinch the victory.

Canyons touched McMillin for two runs in the first on Cooper’s home run over the left-field fence. McMillin, a freshman left-hander, allowed nine hits in six innings. But Canyons repeatedly failed to get a clutch hit with runners in scoring position.

Ventura tied the score, 2-2, in the bottom of the first, turning a hit and three Cougar throwing errors into a pair of runs.

Ventura added two in the fourth to take a 4-2 lead. Chris Ames singled to score Brent Cookson, who had walked and advanced to second on Joel Gaxiola’s sacrifice. Darrel McMillin walked, advanced to third on Ames’ single and scored on David Eggert’s ground out.

Mike Teich (1-1) took the loss and McMillin (7-3) was the winner.