Camarillo Corrals No. 1 Royal, 7-1

A showdown between Marmonte League powers turned into a personal showcase for Mike Corral.

Corral, a senior left-hander for Camarillo High, made short work of Royal, pitching a three-hitter with nine strikeouts Friday in the Scorpions’ 7-1 victory.

The victory moved Camarillo (11-1, 5-0 in league play), ranked third in The Times’ regional poll, 1 1/2 games ahead of top-ranked Royal (10-1, 3-1) and settled--at least, for now--the issue of which team is best.

“We’d been wanting to see what we had and we wanted to see what they had,” Corral said. “I think they’re pretty shocked. They’ve been up their on their high horse and they just got knocked off.”

Corral (4-1) threw only 90 pitches--most of them sharp curves--in setting down the Highlanders in just over 90 minutes.

Corral allowed no walks and retired the side in order three times. Only in the seventh did Royal manage more than one baserunner, pushing across an unearned run on a fielder’s choice.

Camarillo, which collected 11 hits, scored six runs off senior left-hander Adrian Mendoza (3-1), the Highlanders’ ace.

Rodell Desamparo had three hits for the Scorpions, including a double, and scored two runs. Nathan Kaup had two singles and drove in two runs.

“Not every day do you get a chance to play a team as good and as fundamentally sound as they are,” Camarillo Coach Scott Cline said. “[But] we’re a pretty good baseball team. Mike’s doing an excellent job. He’s been around here three or four years. He knows how to pitch.”

Royal Coach Dan Maye conceded as much--as well as the top-ranking to Camarillo.

“We knew exactly what he was going to do: throw his curveball over the plate 90% of the time and make us hit that pitch,” Royal said. “I hope, maybe, they can be the No. 1 team now and we can chase them. Maybe now we’ll be hungry again.”

Camarillo scored an unearned run in the first inning and broke open the game with two runs in the fourth, two more in the fifth and another two in the sixth.

The Scorpions chased Mendoza with Pat Colborn’s leadoff double in the sixth and added an insurance run against reliever Bryant Leppard.