Joy Lifts Canyons to Victory

Chris Joy is again feeling comfortable in the batter’s box, which means that Western State Conference pitchers will be feeling some noticeable discomfort soon.

Moorpark College pitchers David Raper and Lee Skolnick felt it Thursday after the College of the Canyons freshman roughed them up for three hits, including a home run and a double.

Joy also knocked in three runs and scored three more in leading Canyons to its eighth consecutive win in a 10-6 WSC victory at Moorpark.

“At one time he was really on fire, but then he cooled off for a little while,” Canyons Coach Len Mohney said. “But he had another good day today.”

For Joy, the Moorpark pitching staff was a logical target. The Raiders have been struggling, losing their third game in a row to drop to 5-8 overall, 1-5 in conference play.

“They hit our mistakes, the high fastballs,” Moorpark Coach Ron Stillwell said. “We’re just coming up short and not getting the job done on the mound. Until we get that turned around, we’re not going to win too many.”

On Thursday, Moorpark also had bad news off the field. John DeGennaro, a sophomore right-hander, is sidelined because of a sore arm and Ed Hall, a sophomore first baseman-left fielder, may miss the rest of the season after breaking his right wrist in an off-campus brawl last weekend.

“Moorpark’s struggling right now,” Mohney said. “When things start to snowball on you it’s tough. But I thought they played their hearts out today.”

The Raiders jumped ahead early and led, 6-5, after five innings. Canyons, however, rallied for three runs in the sixth, sparked by Joy’s run-scoring single. After knocking home the go-ahead run to snap a 6-6 tie, Joy scored on Mike Bible’s double down the left-field line.

The Cougars (11-3, 6-0) added a run in the seventh on Ray Palagyi’s run-scoring single and scored again in the ninth, but they didn’t need to pad their lead. Ed Aguilar’s eighth-inning, pinch-double off reliever Jeff Frith-Smith was the only Moorpark hit over the last five innings.

Canyons opened the scoring in the first by picking up three runs on six hits. Billy Picketts opened with a double and scored on Joy’s double up the gap in right-center field. Bible singled home Joy and later scored on John Glantz’s ground single down left-field line.

Moorpark got out of trouble when Adam Grant grounded into an inning-ending double play. Canyons missed another chance to score in the fourth when Palagyi popped out with the bases loaded.

The Raiders, however, made the most of their early scoring opportunities. Moorpark scored twice in the first on a pair of run-scoring singles. With one out, Kris Kaelin and Corey Aurand walked and moved up on Don Keathley’s sacrifice fly. Kevin Medeiros then singled home Kaelin, and Aurand followed on Lloyd Wood’s single to left.

Moorpark chased starter Leif Christoffersen in the second. Trailing, 3-2, the Raiders scored the tying run on Keathley’s run-scoring single down the left-field line. Moorpark went ahead when Aurand scored on Frith-Smith’s wild pitch.

Canyons cut the lead to 6-5 with two runs in the fifth. Joy homered to left to start the inning before Ernie Perez doubled home Bible, who was hit by a pitch.

The Cougars had 15 hits and committed two errors. Christoffersen and Frith-Smith (2-1), who picked up the win, allowed seven Moorpark hits.