Sisco, Moorpark Batter Valley in 16-11 Victory

For Moorpark College second baseman Steve Sisco, practice makes perfect.

The Raiders had been taking extra batting practice last week and the hard work paid off Saturday as Sisco collected five hits, scored four runs and had drove in two runs to lead visiting Moorpark to a 16-11 Western State Conference upset of Valley.

Valley (17-3-1, 5-2 in conference play) hardly expected a slugfest with starter Steve Slattery on the mound. Slattery entered the game with a 3-0 record, a 2.98 earned-run average and a streak of 30 consecutive scoreless innings.

But Saturday he could control neither the ball nor Raider hitters, lasting only 3 2/3 innings and giving up eight runs and 10 hits and walking five.

Moorpark (15-6, 5-3) had its own pitching problems as starter Todd Gerbovaz and reliever Paul Perce gave up eight runs in three innings.

Sisco broke an 8-8 tie in the fifth inning with his fourth hit, a 350-foot double to the left-center-field wall that scored Dan Smith. Sisco collected his final hit in the sixth inning to drive in Kris Kaelin as the Raiders took a 13-8 lead.

“We’ve all been working real hard on our batting this week and it really helped us today,” said Sisco, who extended his hitting streak to 19 consecutive games while leading an 18-hit attack. “I went up thinking about hitting the ball up the middle and it worked real well. This game was a real morale booster for us.”

The Monarchs made one last run at Moorpark in the seventh inning as they scored three runs against tiring reliever Jeff Berman (3--3), who pitched four innings to pick up the win.

John Chiaramonte finished off the Monarchs with two innings of stellar relief work for his third save.

Mike Caputi paced Valley with a three-for-five day at the plate and Vladimir Pajcin added a three-run home run in the third inning.

Moorpark’s Darren Romano also hit a home run, whacking a 385-foot shot to left-center field with two runners on in the first inning.