Valley Dispatches Moorpark, Gains State Berth

Joey Kane got down and dirty Thursday at Valley College.

The sophomore left-hander mixed his fastball with off-speed pitches in the dirt and kept Moorpark College batters off balance in Valley’s 7-4 semifinal victory in the Western State Conference playoffs.

The victory assured Valley (29-10-1) of a berth in the state tournament May 11. It also vaulted the Monarchs into the championship round of the WSC playoffs, in which they must sweep a doubleheader Saturday at Ventura to enter the state tournament as the conference’s top-seeded team.

Moorpark’s immediate future will be determined Monday at a meeting of the state tournament seeding committee. The Raiders (23-16) and nine-time WSC champion Canyons, which Moorpark eliminated from the playoffs Tuesday, are prime candidates for an at-large berth in the state tournament.

Moorpark Coach Ron Stillwell, whose resignation will take effect at the end of the season, said that he hoped Thursday’s loss would not be the swan song to his five-year coaching career at Moorpark.

“I’m just hoping we get an at-large bid,” Stillwell said. “I’m thinking positive that we’ll have another game.”

Thinking too much, at least while he was pitching, was the explanation Valley catcher Eric Vargas gave for a recent slump experienced by Kane, who improved to 7-5 with his first victory in a month.

“He was trying to do too much,” Vargas said. “I just told him to throw the ball in the dirt and I’d take care of it. When he’s on, that’s how he pitches.”

Kane, in full command of his curve and forkball, allowed six hits and struck out four in 6 1/3 innings before giving way to freshman right-hander Wayne Schull, who pitched impressively in relief.

“I really let it go today,” said Kane, who will play at Cal State Long Beach next season. “It felt good to keep the ball down and get some ground balls.”

Moorpark scored the game’s first run in the second inning when Darren Aurand singled in Kris Kaelin, who had doubled to lead off.

Valley took the lead for good in the home half of the inning on Vladimir Pajcin’s two-run home run, his fourth of the season, off Moorpark starter Jeff Berman.

Todd Gerbovaz replaced Berman at the outset of the third inning and was greeted with consecutive singles by Ray Sabado, Mike Caputi, Greg Struhl and Mark Cavarretta as Valley built its lead to 4-1.

Caputi’s run-scoring double in the fourth made the score 5-1.

Moorpark mounted its only threat in the seventh inning after Kane loaded the bases by surrendering a double to Aurand and issuing consecutive walks to Darren Romano and Don Smith.

Aurand was thrown out at the plate by Kane on a tapper by Dan Smith. But Moorpark pushed across a run when Sabado, Valley’s shortstop, threw late to second base after making a diving stop of Darin Furlong’s ground ball.

Schull replaced Kane and struck out Steve Sisco. Craig Pearson followed with a two-run single to make the score 5-4. Schull recovered to end the rally by retiring Kaelin on a ground out to second.

“Kane did a good job getting his stuff over,” Kaelin said. “And that guy (Schull) who came in for him did a heck of a job closing the door.”

Valley scored its final runs in the seventh on a home run by Caputi, his first, and a single by John Stephens that drove in Cavarretta, who had been hit by a pitch.