Calabasas Baseball Team Can't Cash in Against Moorpark

Calabasas ace Travis Cassidy didn't have his best stuff. The Calabasas offense squandered scoring opportunities in the first three innings and left seven runners on base. Still, the Coyotes were within striking distance of Marmonte League rival Moorpark until the sixth inning.

But Moorpark scored three runs in the sixth inning and beat Calabasas, 6-1, at Calabasas High School on Wednesday.

Matt Higginbotham delivered a two-run double in the sixth inning that knocked Cassidy out of the game and gave Moorpark a 5-1 lead. Steven Motush added a two-out, RBI single to give his team a five-run lead before the inning was over.

Moorpark coach Scott Fullerton gave his team credit for getting through the first five innings and not giving in to Cassidy. Squelching Calabasas rallies in the first three innings also contributed to Moorpark's laborious win.

Moorpark took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Calabasas tied the game in the bottom of the second.

Kevin Lerner drove in his team's only run on a safety squeeze that scored Jacob Camhi. Calabasas left the bases loaded and wasted an opportunity to break open the game. Jordan Pollack was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a single to right by Alex Rubanowitz. Kevin Khalili struck out looking with the bases loaded to end the inning.

Calabasas had runners on first and second in the first and third innings, but failed to score both times.

Rubanowitz walked to lead off the bottom of the first and Khalili followed with a one-out walk to put runners at first and second.

But Moorpark starter Luke Swenson struck out Mitch Margolis and Jordan Bass to end the threat. Swenson struck out four batters in the first two innings. He finished with five strikeouts, gave up six hits and walked three.

"He started out a little shaky," Moorpark coach Scott Fullerton said about his pitcher. "He has three pitches he can throw for strikes. You can't sit on any one pitch. He really settled in nice out there."

Margolis and Bass led off the third inning with back-to-back singles to put runners at first and second with nobody out. But Margolis was forced out at third on a sacrifice attempt by Camhi. Swenson got Dalton Saberhagen to fly out to center and Pollack grounded out to third to end the inning and another Calabasas scoring threat.

"We screwed up two sacrifice opportunities," Calabasas coach Ed Edsall said. "We definitely had our chances. If we take advantage of those opportunities, it's a completely different game."

Swenson (7-1) settled down after the third inning, mixing in change-ups and breaking balls to keep Calabasas off-balance, and retired 12 batters in a row to end the game.

"He had good stuff," Lerner said. "It fooled us, definitely fooled us."

Moorpark took a 2-1 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by Tanner Moe. The Musketeers went up 3-1 on an RBI single by Brandon Feig in the fifth inning.

Cassidy pitched in and out of trouble for five innings. There was a Moorpark runner on base in each of the first five innings. Calabasas bailed Cassidy out with a 5-4-3 double play in the fourth inning.

Cassidy (5-4) gave up 10 hits and stuck out one.

Moorpark improved to 19-8, 9-3 in the Marmonte League. Calabasas dropped to 13-13, 5-7 in the league.