Royal Fits Marmonte to Be Tied

On one level, the significance of Royal High’s 9-2 baseball victory over Simi Valley on Wednesday was that it created a three-way tie--Royal, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks--atop the Marmonte League with one game to go.

But the Highlanders (17-8, 9-4) celebrated as if they had won the league title. For them, beating Simi Valley (17-8, 9-4) twice in a season is just as good.

“(Simi Valley High Coach Mike) Scyphers always says it’s a fluke when Royal beats Simi Valley,” Royal catcher Ben Lemos said. “We just wanted to show that we are the better team this year.”

On Wednesday the Highlanders, who play Newbury Park on Friday, were certainly better than Simi Valley, which finishes at Thousand Oaks. Royal pounded out nine hits and took advantage of seven walks, a hit batsmen, three errors and four wild pitches.

Royal also escaped numerous jams, leaving 12 Simi Valley runners stranded.

Adrian Mendoza (8-0) started and allowed two unearned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Matt Pitstick followed with 2 2/3 shutout innings and Bryant Leppard, a transfer from Simi Valley, ended the game by striking out the three hitters he faced in the seventh.

Lemos said the Highlanders used off-speed pitches to keep the Pioneers off balance.

“They are a fastball-hitting team,” Lemos said. “It was those cheesy little changeups and curves in the dirt. I guess they weren’t very disciplined hitters.”

Royal took advantage of Simi Valley mistakes to take a 3-0 lead, but the Pioneers came back with two unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Lemos doubled home a run in the fifth to stretch Royal’s lead to 4-2. The Highlanders added two runs in the sixth on Mike Devan’s double and Mendoza’s sacrifice fly. Against reliever Neil Oberheide, Royal scored three runs on five hits in the seventh.

Pitstick, who had two singles, was the only Highlander with more than one hit.

Simi Valley starter Bill Castonguay was charged with six runs in 5 2/3 innings. He walked six.

The Pioneer loss came one game after an 18-7 drubbing of Westlake, which was tied for first with Simi Valley at the time. And it was two games after Simi Valley lost to last-place Agoura.

“I wish I knew which team was going to show up,” Scyphers said. “We’re not playing very consistently at all. . . . This was probably the worst-played and worst-coached game Simi Valley has played in a long time.”

Simi Valley’s Robert Comeau had two doubles and a single.