Ben Drumheller had his best start of the season Tuesday, taking a no-hitter against Oxnard into the eighth inning in Ventura's 7-1 win over the Condors at Pirate Park. Lucas Martinov had three hits, including a double, and scored two runs while Henry Borjas drove in three scores. Caden Stillwell belted out a pair of doubles and had an RBI for the Pirates in the victory.
Drumheller retired the first eight batters of the game until a third-inning walk with two outs broke up his perfect game. He rebounded by recording outs for the next 10 batters, extending his no-hit bid through six innings. He gave up a walk to lead off the seventh, but a pinch runner was thrown out attempting to steal second insuring Drumheller faced one batter over the minimum through seven. The no-hitter was broken up with a pair of singles with one out in th top of the eighth, but two more outs gave the Pirate pitcher eight complete innings of two-hit baseball.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Grant Rodriguez hit a two-out single and came home to score on Stillwell's RBI double.
Daniel Aguilera hit a sacrifice fly to score Matthew Ramirez in the third, and Borjas successfully laid down a bases-loaded bunt in the fourth to score Martinov for a 3-0 VC advantage.
VC put the game out of reach with four runs in the bottom of the eighth. Brandon Contreras and Martinov led off with singles, with Riley Dalto pinch running for Contreras. Tommy Castaneda reached first on an error to load the bases before Jacob Tostado hit an RBI single. Borjas followed with a two-RBI single and Ramirez also hit an RBI single for the 7-0 lead.
The Condors did break-up the shutout with a ninth-inning run, but did not threaten in the 7-1 decision.
The Pirates and Condors will continue their three-game series on Wednesday Mar. 12 at OC with a 2:00 pm first pitch.