Baseball

Barrera Goes 7 Solid Innings in IV Pirates’ 5-1 Victory Over So Cal Shepherds; IVP Meets VC Pirates for BOTW Championship

Jul 29 2022 07:08:49

Baseball:

The Best of the West League began Thursday’s play with four programs hoping to earn a spot in the best-of-three championship series.

The So Cal Shepherds eliminated the Arroyo Seco Sentinels, 5-3, in the morning game, and the top-seeded Ventura County Pirates claimed a 5-2 victory over the No. 2 seeded Inland Valley Pirates.

With the win, the VCP earned a spot in this weekend’s final round, and in the process, it set up Thursday night’s win-or-go-home scenario between the IVP and SCS at Cal Poly Pomona.

After spotting the Shepherds a second-inning run, the Pirates pitching staff buckled down in a 5-1 victory.

The Pirates got two runs in the bottom of the fourth, one in the sixth and a pair of insurance runs in the seventh inning.

Anthony Barrera went seven strong innings to earn the win.

Barrera allowed just one run on seven hits.

He didn’t walk a batter and struck out two.

Diego Cruz provided two scoreless innings in relief.

Cruz allowed a pair of hits, didn’t issue a walk and fanned one SCS batter.

Shane Poe singled and scored.

Drew Salyers had an RBI single.

Alex Laureano singled twice and Brandon Adams doubled.

Rhett Stein went 2-for-4, while Ritter Steinmann and Raul Soto Romero had one single apiece.

IVP scored one run on two hits and a walk off Shane Poe, and got two each against Brandon Adams and Cameron Kelly.

Conner McKinney singled and hit a solo shot for the Pirates.

Dominic Martinez went 4-for-4 and scored three runs.

Anthony McFarland walked and had two singles.

Jacob Badawi had three singles in the win.

In Thursday’s two games, Badawi went 6-for-9, with a double and scored one run.

Anthony Gibbons walked and had an RBI.

Bret Bowers walked twice, doubled and drove in a pair of runs.

Up next: The VCB and the IVP will open their best-of-three championship series tonight (Friday) at Cal Poly Pomona.

The first pitch is set for 6.

Box Score:
SCS: 0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-(1)
VCP: 0-0-0-2-0-1-2-0-X-(5)

Win: Anthony Barrera

HR: Conner McKinney (IVP)
2B: Brandon Adams (SCS); Bret Bowers (IVP)

Records: VCB (18-6-1); IVP (18-6-1); Seco (14-9-1); SCS (10-15)

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