Moorpark’s Dream Is a Nightmare for Taft, 2-1

Will Thurston, the Moorpark College softball coach, has a dream team on his hands.

Not that this year’s squad is necessarily the most talented in Thurston’s three years with the program. But the 1986 Raiders respond remarkably well to the dreams of Thurston’s wife.

Kathy Thurston dreamed of a Moorpark victory Wednesday night, envisioning a one-run win. The Raiders came up with a 2-1 victory Thursday over Taft at Moorpark.

The win thrusts the Raiders back into the Western State Conference race and made Kathy Thurston 2 for 2. Last month she had dreamed of a Moorpark win over perennial power Cal State Fullerton. The Raiders responded with a 4-3 upset.

“I told the team about the dream and the players went wild,” Will Thurston said Thursday. “This was a big win for us. Earlier in the season, we had struggled because we had a young team. Now we’re playing like veterans, not freshmen.”

Moorpark, the two-time defending WSC champion, is 7-1 (17-6 overall) and trails Taft (8-1, 15-13) by one-half game. The teams meet again April 28 at Taft.

The Raiders could hope another premonition goes in their favor, but a safer bet would be to hand the ball to Karen Mead (11-4). The freshman pitcher limited Taft to two hits Thursday and struck out nine. The nine strikeouts increased her school season record to 127.

Mead’s arrival at Moorpark signaled a recruiting coup for Thurston. Mead is from Cabrillo High in Lompoc and had not planned on softball nor college after completing high school.

“I wanted to travel around the world and have fun,” she said.

But she hadn’t figured on Thurston’s persuasiveness as a recruiter.

“Coach Thurston is a football coach, so he can lay some lines on you,” she said.

The teams put lines of zeroes on the scoreboard until Taft used a hit batter, an error and two singles for a run in the fifth. Moorpark scored in the bottom half of the inning when pinch-runner Kristi Arny raced home from third base on a wild pitch by Taft’s Tressa Arnsberg.

Moorpark won the game in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out, bad-hop single by Peggy Liebel that eluded Taft shortstop Lori Roberts and scored Jeana Verhey from third base. Verhey reached first on an error and advanced on a sacrifice and a ground out.

TAFT--Arnsberg and Sell.

MOORPARK--Mead and Power.

WP--Mead (11-4); LP--Arnsberg (8-1).