College Baseball : Caputi Leads 17-Hit Barrage for Valley, 18-7

Mike Caputi had four hits and six runs batted in and Greg Struhl hit a three-run home run as Valley College battered three Pierce pitchers for 17 hits in an 18-7 Western State Conference win Thursday at Valley.

Caputi had a triple and double among his hits. Struhl’s homer, his first, came in the eighth inning and gave the Monarchs (25-8-1, 10-6 in conference play) their 11-run lead. Steve Ross, who scored three runs, added three hits.

Tim DeGrasse pitched into the seventh inning for his eighth victory in nine decisions. Wayne Schull pitched the final 2 2/3 innings.

Pierce fell to 8-8 in the conference.

In other WSC games:

Ventura 3, Glendale 0--Dean McMillin scattered four hits and struck out 11 in 8 1/3 innings for the conference-leading Pirates at Glendale.

McMillin (9-3) gave way to David Eggert, who got the final two outs for his first save. Brent Cookson hit a solo home run for Ventura (26-8, 14-3) in the fourth.

Santa Monica 5, Moorpark 3--Ernie Soto delivered a run-scoring single and Ted Garcia hit a run-scoring double in the sixth inning to lift Santa Monica at Moorpark.

Garcia hit an opposite-field home run in the first to give Santa Monica a 3-0 lead. Moorpark (20-14, 9-8) scored single runs in the first, second and fifth to tie the score. Darin Furlong singled in the fifth and came around to score on three passed balls.

Todd Gerbovaz (4-3) yielded 11 hits in seven innings for Moorpark.

SO. CAL. ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

East L.A. 4, Mission 3--East L. A. pushed a run across in the ninth inning against Mission starter Chris Romo at East L. A.

John Jukawski and Tom Konkel each had two hits for Mission (9-19, 6-9 in conference play). Romo struck out two and walked three.