Camarillo A Batters Don’t Hit, and Pitchers and Fielders Miss

The idea that three hits would be enough to defeat the Camarillo A American Legion baseball team seemed laughable before Thursday.

But no one was chuckling on the Camarillo bench after Westside used three hits and four unearned runs to post a 5-4 victory at Birmingham High in the first round of the Area 6 playoffs.

Camarillo, which boasts a fearsome batting order, could muster only seven hits. That meager showing, combined with five Camarillo errors and six walks and two hit batters by pitcher Jake Kor (5-1) added up to an unpleasant sum.

Camarillo plays Santa Monica today at 10 a.m. at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium in an elimination game. Westside plays Valley North at the same location at 6 p.m.

“We should have won but pitching and defense hurt us,” Camarillo Coach Dave Soliz said. “I thought our errors were a direct reflection of our walks. When you walk six batters the [fielder] will fall asleep somewhat.”

Consecutive two-out walks gave Camarillo a chance in the ninth inning but No. 3 hitter Jeff Bannon, who entered the game batting .488 with 23 runs batted in, flied out to end the game.

“What can I say? I crushed that last one but right at the guy,” Bannon said. “That kind of signified the kind of game we had.”

Camarillo trailed, 1-0, before scoring four times in the third. Jay Caligiuri and Bannon had one-out hits and Joe Borchard drew a walk to load the bases.

A sharp grounder by Joe Yingling bounced off the glove of shortstop Adam Hernandez and into shallow left field, scoring Caligiuri and Bannon for a 2-1 Camarillo lead.

Borchard and Yingling scored when Shane Miranda doubled.

Westside cut the lead to 4-2 in the third, then got even in the fifth.

Marion Mauch led off the fifth with a single and Scott Walter hit a slow grounder to Bannon.

The shortstop had little chance to get Walter but threw the ball anyway, resulting in an error and moving the runners to second and third.

Mauch scored on a groundout by Shane Warmington and Walter on a sacrifice fly by Scott Arrasmith.

The winning run scored in the sixth when Westside’s Hernandez was hit by a pitch, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Mauch’s sacrifice fly.

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American Legion Baseball Area 6 Playoffs

Thursday’s Results

at Birmingham High

* Newhall Saugus 19

* Santa Monica 15

* Westside 5

* Camarillo A 4

* Valley North 3

* West Covina 2

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Today’s Games

at Jackie Robinson Stadium

* Santa Monica vs. Camarillo A, 10 a.m.

* West Covina vs. Newhall Saugus, 2 p.m.

* Westside vs. Valley North, 6 p.m.