Answers Come Clear as Darkness Forces Tie

A 3-3 Frontier League tie between the Santa Paula and Calabasas baseball teams Friday did not produce a winner but did provide a few answers.

Can Santa Paula (5-0-1, 2-0-1 in league play), an unimposing bunch in past years, contend for this season’s league title? Absolutely.

Is Calabasas (4-1-2, 2-0-1) as fundamentally sound as the team that captured last season’s league crown and won 25 consecutive games? Absolutely not.

The game, called after seven innings because of darkness at Calabasas High, left the teams with a bland taste.

“We needed to play a front-line team to find out where we stood and obviously Calabasas really fits that mold,” said Santa Paula Coach Henry Jacinto, whose team led, 3-0, after four innings. “I hope we learned that we can play with anyone.”

Calabasas co-Coaches Scott Drootin and Rick Nathanson were less pleased, in spite of the Coyotes’ three-run rally in the fifth.

“We should have won but we didn’t execute,” said Drootin, whose team committed three errors and surrendered two unearned runs despite several favorable calls from the umpires. “The little things add up.”

Calabasas likely would have had another run in the fifth, but Ricky Stockton was picked off first with none out. In the sixth, leadoff hitter Chris Bentz reached third with one out but became an easy out in a suicide squeeze play when Ryan Coleman failed to lay down a bunt.

The teams’ pitching followed a similar pattern. Calabasas starter Tanner Trosper (2-0) lasted four innings and allowed four hits and three runs, one earned. He finished with seven strikeouts and four walks. Relievers Justin Erickson and Matt Jackson did not allow a hit.

Santa Paula starter Carlos Torres (2-0) allowed three earned runs and seven hits in five innings. He struck out three and walked two. Reliever Paz Olson-Pacheco did not allow a hit in two innings.