AROUND THE HORN / FOCUS ON AREA BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL : Doherty Helps Pierce in a Pinch

Pierce College outfielder Casey Doherty took inventory and decided the odds were in his favor.

Doherty, pinch-hitting with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth inning, stroked a hard single inside the third-base bag to drive in two runs and give the Brahmas a 4-3 victory over Ventura in a Western State Conference interdivisional game Saturday.

“It was an inside fastball,” Doherty said of the game-winning hit. “I just turned on it. I was just trying to drive it so we could score a run.”

Doherty didn’t have to guess much at what was coming. Right-hander reliever Brandon Knight, working on a 2-and-1 count, had to challenge Doherty. And to make matters worse, the Pirates had drawn in their infield.

The hit scored Dave Cipolla, who led off the inning with a walk against starter Clint Harris, and Casey Cote, who singled against Knight after failing to sacrifice twice.

“Doherty is a starter,” Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano said. “We have four guys we rotate in the outfield. It was his turn to sit it out.”

Harris, a sophomore right-hander from Thousand Oaks High who was making his first start of the season, engaged Pierce right-hander Jim DeBiase (3-2) in a pitching duel through eight innings before giving way to Knight in the ninth.

The Brahmas (15-12, 11-2 in conference play) did not get a hit against Harris until two out in the fifth, when shortstop Jeff Shapiro singled up the middle to score Jeff Astgen from second. Harris had hit Astgen with a pitch, one of four batters he plunked.

DeBiase, a freshman from Notre Dame High, mixed his fastball and off-speed pitches well to notch the complete game. He gave up eight hits, walked two and struck out two.

Ventura (14-8-1, 8-5) took a 2-0 lead in the third when Tim Rosales and Jamal Nichols hit consecutive singles with one out. After Sam Monroy grounded out, Knight doubled off the left-field fence to score Rosales and Nichols.

The Brahmas got to within 2-1 on Shapiro’s single in the fifth and pulled even, 2-2, in the sixth.

Right-fielder John Novak led off the inning and was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, and Dave Cipolla tripled him home.

Knight opened the ninth with a high fly ball that fell in shallow center field among three Pierce players. He scored with two out on a sharp single to center by Javier Moreno.

Things then unraveled for Ventura in the bottom half of the inning, when Harris walked Cipolla on a full-count fastball that ignited the Brahmas.

“That leadoff walk hurt,” Lofrano said. “That set the tone for the inning.”

Harris, who usually works as a set-up man for the Pirates, struck out seven and walked four.