AMERICAN LEGION AREA 6 PLAYOFFS : Camarillo Winds Up on Top Again in Bottom of the Ninth, 3-2

Don’t bother watching the Camarillo American Legion team until the ninth inning.

On Friday, for the second consecutive day, Camarillo won an Area 6 baseball playoff game in the bottom of the ninth.

Jeff Bannon drove in the winning run with a one-out single, giving Camarillo a 3-2 victory over Arcadia at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Camarillo beat Newhall, 5-4, in the first round on Thursday, scoring on an error in the ninth.

“I’m 22 years old and these guys are making me gray already,” Camarillo Coach David Soliz said.

Nathan Kaup led off the ninth Friday with a single up the middle and took second on Scott Volan’s sacrifice. Bannon lined his second hit of the game into the right-field gap. Right fielder Ryan Baderian had a shot at pinch-runner Charlie Boch at the plate, but his throw was high.

Today at 2 p.m., Camarillo (31-5) will play Claremont (33-20), which beat Westchester, 13-11. Camarillo and Claremont are the only unbeaten teams in the double-elimination tournament.

Ventura (24-5) will play Arcadia (25-13) in an elimination game at 10 a.m. The winner of the first game will face the loser of the second game at 6 p.m. The winner of the 2 p.m. game will advance to Sunday’s final.

Little-used Joe Borchard, who will be a junior at Camarillo High, retired the first 10 batters and gave up one hit through five innings.

Andy Kroneberger gave him a 2-0 lead with a leadoff home run in the first and scored on an error in the fifth.

Camarillo benefited with Borchard on the mound but he was missed in right field. In the top of the sixth, right fielder Kaup dropped a routine fly, allowing Arcadia to tie the game with two unearned runs.

Arcadia threatened to take the lead in the seventh, when a single and a double put runners at second and third with two out, but Borchard got out of the jam when Henry Ojeda lined out.

Mike Corral (4-1) pitched the final 1 2/3 innings in relief of Borchard.

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Ventura 9, Newhall 3--James Melcher (6-0) scattered 11 hits over nine innings, eliminating Newhall (24-4) in a losers’ bracket game marred by a bench-clearing brawl in the fourth inning.

With Ventura (24-5) leading, 6-0, Jeremy Pierce slid hard into Newhall second baseman Mike Bland. The two got up and exchanged words, then shoves, and both teams spilled onto the field into a pile of flying fists.

“I slid in and he said some things to me that you probably don’t want to put in the newspaper,” Pierce said. “Then I said some words back to him, then he hit me.”

Newhall first baseman Aaron Dean, shortstop Chad Ott and Bland were ejected. Ventura catcher Monty Moritz, Pierce and J.C. Holt, who was not even in the game, and assistant coach Monty Moritz Sr., were all ejected.

Those ejected for Ventura will be suspended at least for one game today and possibly for the rest of the tournament. Area 6 Commissioner Julio Yniguez will make a decision before today’s games.

Ventura took a 3-0 lead with five hits in the first inning against Mike Bench (2-2), who was pitching in only his fourth game of the season. Newhall Coach Pat Eggleston said he was trying to get by with Bench to save No. 2 starter Brent Davidson for later in the tournament.

The top two hitters in Ventura’s lineup--Tim Stallings and Danny Harrison--each had three of the team’s 17 hits.

Jeremy Seipel had three hits, two of them doubles, for Newhall.