Moorpark Shows New Frontier to Calabasas

During the past three seasons, the Calabasas High baseball team owned the Frontier League. These days, the Coyotes will settle for squatter’s rights.

Calabasas, whose days as league bully have clearly ended, was routed, 9-1, on Monday by Moorpark, the current league leader and the Coyotes’ heir apparent.

Calabasas Coach Rick Nathanson could only shake his head as his team committed four errors, two on the same play, and generally showed the youth and inexperience that comes with a rebuilding effort.

“Last year marked the end of a golden era for us,” said Nathanson, whose team won three outright league titles and were 44-0-1 in the past three seasons. “I hope in two or three years we’ll be back where we were.”

Moorpark (10-4, 4-0 in league play) jumped on Coyote starter Matt Jackson (1-5) for a run in the first inning and four in the second. The Musketeers also scored one run in the fourth and three in the sixth to end a 10-game losing streak to Calabasas that dated to 1994.

Moorpark starter Brian Gilbert (3-1) combined with Wes Rasmussen, who pitched the final two innings, for a one-hitter. Gilbert gave up an unearned run in the second.

Musketeer Coach Scott Fullerton said pitching depth and a consistent offense are what make this year’s team the best of the four he has coached at Moorpark.

“Last year, I would have had to ask Brian to finish this,” he said. “Now we have other people to hand the ball off to.”

Before the game, Nathanson said Jackson would have to limit Moorpark to less than five hits and allow only one or two runs for Calabasas (4-9, 2-2) to have a chance. The senior allowed eight hits and six runs, four of them earned, in four innings.

“We’re young, but we’re also making the same mistakes in our 13th game that we made at the start of the season, and that’s disconcerting,” Nathanson said.

Moorpark’s Matt Norris had three hits and Justin Tolliver had two.

Randy Curtis had Calabasas’ lone hit, a single in the fourth that snuck under the glove of diving second baseman Tolliver.