Canyons Hands Rival Pierce 11-6 Setback

Recently, nine has been more than enough for the College of the Canyons baseball team.

“We’ve been struggling to play nine innings of baseball,” Coach Len Mohney said. “We play well in spurts, but we can’t hold it together. We’re having trouble playing solid ball for an entire game.”

Nevertheless, the Cougars continue to roll. Rebounding from a loss to conference-leading Cuesta last Saturday, Canyons improved to 6-2 in Western State Conference play with an 11-6 victory over Pierce on Tuesday at Canyons.

With the win the Cougars, 14-7 overall, closed to within a half-game of Moorpark (7-2) and a game of Cuesta (7-1).

“The conference is tough,” Mohney said. “We got spanked by Cuesta, but I like where we are. We’re going to get another shot at both Moorpark and Cuesta at our place. It’ll be close”

On Tuesday, Canyons, last year’s WSC co-champion, unleashed a 14-hit attack against three Pierce pitchers. The Cougars pounded out seven extra-base hits, including home runs by Ron Robart, Steve Kovacic and Billy Horvat.

Shortstop Charlie Fowlks extended his hitting streak to 13 games since replacing the injured Dave Toledo in mid-February. Robart, Gary Morgan and Horvat also extended their hitting streaks, to 10, eight and seven games, respectively .

“We haven’t been playing like ourselves,” said Robart, a sophomore from Monroe High who has hit safely in 20 of Canyons’ 21 games. “We played better today, but we still made a couple of mistakes. We haven’t been hitting with two outs and people on.”

Mike Teich (5-0), who pitched eight innings in the Cougars’ victory over Oxnard last week, pitched six Tuesday, allowing three earned runs on seven hits.

Canyons scored in each of the the first four innings and led, 7-0, before Pierce (9-12, 2-6) scored twice in the top of the fourth.

The Cougars tagged Pierce starter Juan Soriano (0-3) for four runs while batting around in the second inning. Two runs scored on J. R. Trujillo’s line-drive single. Robart singled in another and Morgan was forced home on a bases-loaded walk.

“There’s always an incentive to beat these guys,” Pierce Coach Bob Lyons said. “(Canyons) is a hard-hitting team. We fell behind early, but we kept on coming back. We were clawing and scratching the whole way.”

The Brahmas added two runs each in the sixth and seventh to close to within 10-6, but Canyons added to its lead when Kovacic was forced home on a bases-loaded walk in the eighth.

Pat Fairly knocked in two runs for Pierce on a double and a home run and Pat Huston and Jim Doushgounian each had two hits.