Reisman Cleans Up for No. 1 Calabasas : Baseball: After bad day, he triples and scores then singles home winning run in seventh for 2-1 victory in Westside final.

A day after going hitless in three at-bats against winless Malibu High, Darin Reisman of Calabasas was a little sharper at the plate Saturday against Ventura in the Red Division championship game of the Westside tournament at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Reisman, the Coyotes’ cleanup hitter who tripled and scored in the fourth inning, singled home Mike Melucci from second base with two out in the seventh inning to give Calabasas a 2-1 victory.

“(Reisman) sure didn’t look like a kid who should be batting No. 4 (Friday),” said Calabasas co-Coach Rick Nathanson, whose team had five hits off two Ventura pitchers. “But you look up and down our lineup and someone’s gonna get you. It just might not be the guy you expect.”

Nobody expected the Westside final to be played in May. The tournament kicked off in mid-March but a series of rainouts pushed its later rounds into conflict with teams’ regular-season games.

Calabasas (22-0), which defeated Notre Dame, Hart and Chatsworth to reach the championship game, played error-free defense and got strong pitching to beat Ventura.

Tanner Trosper started and went 2 2/3 innings, allowing Ventura’s only hit in the first and its only run in the third. He left with the bases loaded and two out in the third.

Brandon Cohen (8-0) worked out of that jam by striking out Shawn Wenger and went on to smother the Cougars (12-10) with 4 1/3 hitless innings peppered with off-speed pitches.

Ventura, which lost a 1-0 Channel League game to Dos Pueblos in 11 innings Friday, started No. 4 pitcher Seth Casey. He went six innings, allowing four hits and one earned run.

The Cougars had several scoring chances, but came up short in almost every situation.

Ventura put its first two batters of the game in scoring position with one out on a leadoff walk to Tim Stallings and a double by Monty Moritz that would have scored Stallings had he not tripped rounding third.

Cleanup hitter Jeremy Pierce tried to squeeze home Stallings but missed the pitch. Moritz was tagged out after a rundown when he and Stallings both wound up on third. Pierce grounded out to second on the next pitch.

“That was the ballgame right there,” Ventura Coach Dan Smith said. “I chose to be the visitors because I thought we could jump on them early and put them in a position they weren’t used to. It almost worked.”

Jason Watkins scored for Ventura in the third when he led off with a walk, stole second, went to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on a wild pitch.

The Cougars loaded the bases with two out before Cohen retired Wenger to end the inning. The Cougars also had runners at first and third with two out in the fifth but a strikeout by Pierce ended that threat.

Calabasas, which had five hits, got its first two in the fourth. Reisman led off with his triple and scored on a one-out sacrifice fly by Zach Fields. Jared Sandler hit a two-out double to right-center field but was stranded.

Casey was replaced by Corey Kniss (1-1), making his third pitching appearance of the season, in the seventh.

Mike Melucci drew a leadoff walk, tagged up and took second on a fly out Billy Hoover before Reisman chopped his winning hit to left field.

“It was one of the most tremendous feelings I’ve had in a long time,” said Cohen, who struck out four. “It shows your team’s poise when it stays strong in clutch situations after beating other teams by a lot of runs.”

Nathanson said the victory was another piece of evidence that the Coyotes are not the Division IV cream puff naysayers have proclaimed them to be.

“Teams from the bigger leagues say our record is too good to be true, then they get in a dogfight with us and find out we’re tough,” Nathanson said.