Cuesta Sidetracks Ventura in 9th, 13-10 : College baseball: Pirates hope for at-large berth in state playoffs after loss in WSC tournament final.

With one swing Thursday, Cuesta College outfielder Jason Luttges ripped apart Ventura’s free pass to the junior college state baseball playoffs and left the Pirates with little more than an at-large lottery ticket.

Luttges, the Western State Conference batting champion, blasted a three-run homer in the ninth inning--his second of the day--to lift the upstart Cougars to a marathon 13-10 victory over host Ventura in the WSC tournament final.

The win gave the No. 2 conference seeding and an automatic berth in the Southern California regional to Cuesta (20-14), the fourth-place finisher in the WSC during the regular season.

Ventura, which finished second in the WSC, is left to wait for Monday’s seedings meeting and hope for an at-large berth in the playoffs as the conference’s No. 3 representative.

“If I was a guy that had a vote, I would have to take a serious look,” Ventura Coach Gary Anglin said in reference to his team’s chances for an at-large bid. “To me, it’s a 50-50 chance.”

Because of their solid 24-14 record, the Pirates figure to have better than a 50-50 shot at a playoff berth. But as it stands now, conference champion Pierce and Cuesta are the only WSC teams with set plans for May 8, the start of regional play.

During the early stages of Thursday’s 3-hour 35-minute affair, it appeared as if Ventura held its postseason fate comfortably in hand.

The Pirates held a 5-0 lead in the third inning and an 8-2 advantage in the fourth, only to have things slip away in the face of five Cuesta homers, the most significant of which was hit by Luttges.

After solo homers by Kevin Boller and Marcus Drake put the Cougars on the board in the fourth, Luttges blasted a two-out grand slam well over the fence in left in the sixth to make the score, 8-6.

With his team trailing, 10-9, in the ninth, Luttges followed walks to Greg Hines (three hits) and Boller (two hits) with a convincing homer to left off right-hander Kevin Zoll, the last of five Pirate pitchers.

“Today was just an exceptional day,” said Luttges, who has eight homers. “We’re playing well right now and it’s definitely starting to show.”

Ventura, which finished with nine hits, had a chance to break the game open in the third when the Pirates scored five runs on four hits and four walks. Pirate catcher Mitch King had the key hit, a three-run triple.

But a strikeout and a groundout with the bases loaded kept Cuesta within striking distance.

“That might have been the difference,” Anglin said. “I think good hitters jump on mistakes, and we didn’t.”

Ventura took a 10-9 lead in the seventh when Kasha Clemons drove in Chris Bargsten with a single up the alley in right-center.

But Cuesta answered the call in the ninth when Ventura relievers Jason Isaacs and Pete Alamillo (4-4) each walked a batter and Zoll surrendered the critical hit to Luttges.

Carlos Rios went two for three with two runs batted in and Tim Cornish added two hits for Ventura.

Joey Davis, the third of four Cuesta pitchers, yielded one run in three innings to earn his second win.

After struggling early in the season, Cuesta hit its stride in the second half of the season and went on to secure a berth in the state playoffs for the third year in a row under Coach Larry Lee.

“This is one of the hardest places to win,” said Lee, whose team has beaten Ventura three times in as many meetings this season. “We don’t have home run production like that ever.”