Baseball: Owls Go Long Against Pirates

Four different players hit home runs Tuesday afternoon to lift Citrus College 9-2 over Ventura College.

The Fighting Owls improve to 6-4 on the year, while the Pirates drop to 4-4.

After taking Ventura down in order to start the game, Citrus scored in its first chance at the plate. Brett Bowers (2-for-3) sacrificed a fly ball deep to center, allowing Kanta Kobayashi (1-for-2) to tag up from third, 1-0.

Bowers tacked on two more runs in the third, blasting the first homer of the day over the fence at left field, extending the Owls' lead to 3-0.

Ventura responded in the top of the fourth with a run, but Citrus answered right back with an RBI single from Tristan Thomas in the bottom half of the inning, 4-1.

The Pirates plated another run in the top of the fifth to pull within two, 4-2, but the Owls broke the game open in the sixth. With two runners on and one out, Matthew Ramirez (2-for-3) turned on a pitch and drilled it over the wall in left to push Citrus' lead to 7-2.

Two more long balls – from Kobayashi and Jack Strickland – in the bottom of the seventh sealed the deal for the Owls as they took the game 9-2.

Five pitchers combined to limit Ventura to just three hits, with Erick Olivares picking up the win.