Ventura Set to Continue Playoff March

Ventura College will play Mt. San Jacinto in the third round of the Southern California regional of the state junior college baseball tournament Friday at 3 p.m. at Cerritos College .

If third-seeded Ventura wins, it will meet either Long Beach or Cerritos at noon Saturday. The championship of the double-elimination tournament will be Sunday at 11 a.m.

The Pirates (29-9) defeated Mt. San Jacinto, 7-0, in the Channel Coast tournament in March in a game that featured 28 strikeouts. Freshman left-hander Rich Mendez of Ventura struck out 12 in eight innings and Mike Teron struck out three in relief.

Freshman right-hander Darrell Goedhart (5-6), who is expected to start for the Eagles (24-15), struck out 13 in his prior meeting with Ventura.

Coach Gary Anglin of Ventura plans to start freshman left-hander Dean McMillin (10-4), the Western State Conference Player of the Year.

“Dean is our best pitcher, plus a left-hander (Mendez) beat them the last time we played,” Anglin said.

Ventura received a bye to the third round of the playoffs after defeating Valley, 5-1, in the championship game of the WSC playoffs. Mt. San Jacinto received a bye to the third round after winning the Foothill Conference title.

The Eagles, seeded sixth, were awarded the conference championship after San Bernardino Valley had to forfeit the title because it used an ineligible player.

Ventura and Mt. San Jacinto each have momentum going into the regional playoffs. The Pirates have won 11 of their last 12 and the Eagles have won 12 of their last 15. The Eagles have come from behind to win in 19 games this season.

Victor Jones, a sophomore center fielder, led the Foothill Conference in batting average (.448), triples (11), hits (74) and runs batted in (55).

“Ventura is an excellent team, the best team we’ve played all year,” Mt. San Jacinto Coach Steve Alonzo said. “But we have one of those teams with nothing to lose. Our baseball program has never gone this far.”

In third-round games in a separate bracket at Rancho Santiago, Cypress will play Rancho Santiago and Palomar will play Harbor. The winner of each bracket advances to the state finals May 26-28 at Sacramento City College.