Canyons Gets Some Relief With Win at Moorpark

Freshman right-hander Alan Sedacca was replaced after walking the leadoff batter in the ninth inning Thursday against Moorpark College, but he had already accomplished a victory of sorts. Lately, any time a Canyons’ starter makes it to the ninth, it is a coup for the Cougars.

But sure enough, as soon as Sedacca departed, reliever Brian Roth encountered trouble.

Protecting a tenuous four-run lead, Roth immediately allowed a run-scoring double to Steve Sisco. Roth then walked Craig Pearson, one of the hottest batters in the Western State Conference, to bring up designated-hitter Kris Kaelin with two on and none out.

But in a turnabout of recent Canyons fortunes, Roth induced Kaelin to ground into a double play as he worked out of trouble to preserve the Cougars’ 6-3 WSC victory at Moorpark.

For Canyons Coach Len Mohney, who has seen his team squander several four-run leads this season, the win was a relief.

“In this league this year, I don’t think anybody is safe with any score at any time,” Mohney said.

More importantly for Canyons, its beleaguered bullpen got a reprieve by virtue of Sedacca’s eight-inning outing.

“Sedacca pitched with a lot of heart today,” Mohney said. “We turned a couple of double plays that were not pretty, but they did the job. I think Moorpark let us off the hook a couple of times early in the game.”

Sedacca (3-0) gave up two runs and nine hits. With the victory, Canyons (17-12 overall, 10-4 in conference play) stayed within a game of first-place Ventura in the conference standings.

Chris Joy had the biggest hit for Canyons, a two-run home run in the fourth that landed in the handball courts beyond the left-field fence.

Buoyed by the blast, Canyons added another run in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. After Joy cleared the bases, John Chiaramonte hit Scott Roth with a pitch and gave up singles to Alex Bartarse and Adam Grant to load the bases.

Randy Cooper hit a run-scoring ground out to produce the third run.

Moorpark (20-11, 9-5) failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities in the second and third innings.

The Raiders loaded the bases in the second on singles by Kaelin and Darren Romano and a walk to Darren Aurand. But Don Smith popped up to first base and Dan Smith grounded out to end the threat.

In the third, Darin Furlong, who has a 19-game hitting streak, and Sisco both singled with none out, but Sedacca got Pearson to ground out and Kaelin to hit into a double play.

“You have to take advantage of it when you have men on base and we did not do that,” Moorpark Coach Ron Stillwell said. “We took ourselves out of the game early.”

Moorpark scored in the fourth on Don Smith’s sacrifice fly that brought home Romano, who had doubled to left and advanced to third on Aurand’s ground out.

The Raiders added a run in the fourth when Pearson reached second on shortstop Ernie Perez’s fielding error and scored on Kaelin’s bloop single to left.

Leading, 4-2, the Cougars added a run in the eighth on Grant’s single to right that scored Bartarse, who had doubled and advanced to third on Gary Morgan’s ground out.

The Cougars took a 6-2 lead on Perez’s home run over the left-field fence in the ninth.

Chiaramonte (5-2), a freshman right-hander from Westlake High, gave up five runs and 10 hits in eight innings to take the loss.