Ventura’s Espitia Shuts Down Valley Again, 3-0

Shane Espitia of Ventura College has a secret--one he isn’t willing to share with the rest of the area’s junior college pitchers. He appears to be the only one who knows how to beat Valley College, a trick he performed for the second time this season with a three-hit, 3-0 victory Thursday in a Western State Conference game at Ventura.

“You have to pitch well to shut out a team like us,” Valley Coach Chris Johnson said.

Valley (14-2-1, 2-1 in WSC play), has suffered its only losses against Espitia, a freshman right-hander--the first occurred two weeks ago, a 5-4 setback in the semifinals of the San Bernardino tournament eventually won by Valley. And Espitia recently mastered a new pitch, a cut fastball that moves toward right-handers, to complement his slider, which breaks in the opposite direction.

“I was hitting my spots with my fastball and my slider,” Espitia said. “If I can’t control both pitches, I would have had a tougher time. That whole team can hit.”

But Thursday, Espitia (3-1) kept Valley guessing. He struck out five and walked four for his second complete game. Only one Valley runner reached third base and the Monarchs hit into three double plays.

The most costly double play took place in the sixth inning. After Ray Sabado led off with a single to right to extend his hitting streak to 15 games, Gene Demyon walked. But Mark Cavaretta put the brakes to the rally with a grounder to first that was turned into a double play. Sabado advanced to third but was left there when Greg Struhl grounded to second.

Valley starter Joey Kane (3-2) pitched well enough to win, scattering eight hits, striking out six and walking three. But he gave up run-scoring doubles to David Eggert and Mike Spencer in the second inning and an RBI single to Mike Teron in the fifth.

Ventura is 10-4, 2-2 in the WSC.