Harrigan Guns Down Canyons in 8-1 Win

Len Mohney didn’t know where to start his critique of College of the Canyons’ 8-1 loss to Oxnard in the first game of a best-of-three series to determine the Western State Conference champion Thursday at Oxnard.

His Canyons team managed only four hits, so Mohney was understandably concerned about the Cougar offense. In addition, three errors and several misplayed balls in the field didn’t leave him at ease about his defense.

Neither concern, however, made much of a difference, considering the way Sean Harrigan pitched for Oxnard.

Harrigan (9-0), a sophomore right-hander from Simi Valley High, scattered three singles and an Andy Cutchall double, struck out six and walked five as Oxnard, winner of the WSC Northern Division, moved to within a game of the outright conference title.

“The real story of the game was Harrigan,” Mohney said. “He manhandled us. We didn’t get many good cuts in against him, and even our hits weren’t shots. We just didn’t force them to play much defense.”

Oxnard (29-6) took a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning when Canyons second baseman Roger Nix was slow fielding a ground ball with two outs, allowing the first run to score. Heath Delatorre followed with a two-run double.

The lead expanded to 8-1 in the eighth inning when Oxnard scored five runs. One run scored on a George Spencer single and two more came home on a dropped fly ball in center field.

“That inning kind of snowballed on us,” Mohney said. “It got a little ugly out there.”

Fred Riscen struck out eight for Canyons (28-7) before requiring relief from Chris Zavatsky in the eighth.

“Oxnard is a good team and they just played a good game,” Mohney said. “I’m disappointed because we didn’t play very well on defense, but even so we have to score more than one run. We just didn’t play very well.”

Mohney said he would start Jeff Ward (6-1) in Saturday’s first game at Canyons. And his starter for the second game?

“I just hope there is a second game.”