HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Aragon Pitches Channel Islands to Tournament Title

Channel Islands High pitcher Angel Aragon may have had a sore right ankle Wednesday, but he proved his right arm was fine in tossing a one-hitter to beat Ventura, 4-0, in the championship game of the Thousand Oaks baseball tournament.

Aragon (8-1) had missed the past six days with a sprained ankle, so instead of relying on his usually overpowering fastball, he concentrated on control. Aragon struck out just two batters, but he didn’t walk any, letting his defense do the rest of the work.

With the help of the steady play at shortstop from George Romero and an outstanding running catch in center by Chris Fullmar, Aragon didn’t allow a Ventura runner to advance past second base.

“My ankle was still a little shaky,” Aragon admitted after the game. “I wasn’t trying to overpower them. I was just going for the corners. I wanted to make them hit the ball.”

Aragon came within a whisker of a no-hitter when Brian Ortiz narrowly missed making an over-the-shoulder catch of Sean Osborne’s double in the third inning.

The Raiders scored three runs with two out in the bottom of the first inning, one on a double by Alex Zavala and two on a single by Ysidro Alfaro.

Regular second baseman Sam Monroy received 20 stitches in his right knee last week after being spiked in a Marmonte League game against Camarillo. But Alfaro, Monroy’s sophomore replacement, responded with seven hits and eight runs batted in in 10 at-bats as Channel Islands (15-1) went 4-0 in the three-day tournament.

“Ysidro was our MVP,” Coach Don Cardinal said. “He really came through with some clutch hits.”

Ventura (8-10) finished the tournament with a 3-1 record.

In another Thousand Oaks tournament game:

Montclair Prep 6, Pasadena 2--The Mounties powered their way to third place behind the five-hit pitching of Osman Kahn and a three-run homer by Brad Fullmar.

Fullmar broke the game open with his home run in the bottom of the fifth to give Montclair Prep (10-4-1) a 6-1 lead. Kahn (2-1) gave up runs in the first and seventh on the way to a complete-game win. Pasadena fell to 6-4-1.

Lompoc beat Thousand Oaks, 7-6, for fifth place, Newark Memorial blasted Agoura, 11-0, for seventh place and Santa Paula belted the Thousand Oaks junior varsity squad, 11-0, in the ninth-place game.