RSS Feed
| The Acorn Thousand Oaks Acorn Camarillo Acorn - Simi Valley Acorn |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Despite blowout loss, Musketeers have a reason to celebrate
And then came the phone call they had all been waiting for. "We live to play another day, boys," Moorpark head coach Scott Fullerton told his team as they huddled near the home dugout. "That's all I can say; we live to play another day." By virtue of Calabasas' 5-3 victory over Westlake, the Musketeers' season was still alive. All three teams- Moorpark, Calabasas and Westlake- finished the regular season with 6-8 records in Marmonte League play, good for a threeway tie for fourth place. Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks both ended up 11-3 in league, but Simi Valley won a coin flip and will be the league's top seed in the CIF-Southern Section Division I playoffs, slated to begin next Thursday. Royal finished third with a 9-5 league record. Only four teams from the Marmonte make the playoffs, leaving Moorpark, Calabasas and Westlake to slug it out for the final postseason bid. Moorpark and Calabasas played a win-or-go-home game Thursday afternoon at Simi Valley. Because of a league tiebreaker rule, Westlake received a bye and will play the Moorpark-Calabasas winner Friday at Conejo Creek Park South in Thousand Oaks. Thursday's score wasn't available prior to press time. According to senior pitcher/ outfielder Wes Wright, the Musketeers' season was already a success, regardless if they made the playoffs or not. With a 17-11 overall record, Moorpark eclipsed its win total from the last two years combined- the Musketeers were 6-21 in 2007 and 9-18 in '06. They also won the Righetti Spring Classic in late March. "My sophomore year was brutal. My junior year was brutal," said Wright, who entered the finale with a 5-4 record, 2.01 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 52 innings pitched. "This year is completely different. Every single guy up here, I'll break my back for because they work hard and they deserve everything. I'm happy with this year." Wright will play for Cal State Northridge, as will fellow MHS pitcher Justen Gorski. "Those are a couple of quality guys right there," Fullerton said. There were many standout performances for the Musketeers during the regular season, and none were more spectacular than senior first baseman Dewey Grattan's efforts at the plate. Prior to the T.O. game, the Oxnard College-bound left-handed hitter led Moorpark in batting average (.440), hits (40), home runs (four), runs batted in (31), on-base percentage (.505) and slugging percentage (.681). Still, the stats took a back seat to team success for Grattan. "I wasn't looking at the numbers, it was more about the team playing well," Grattan said. "The numbers just kind of fell into place." Senior Michael Moris (.419 average, 25 RBI, 10 stolen bases), junior Landon Hunt (.395 average, 32 hits) sophomore Luke Swenson (.361 average, 26 runs) and Wright (.372 average, two home runs) all proved to be tough outs each and every time they stepped to the plate. Keenan Hernandez, Elon Goldman, Ryan Watt, Gorski and Wright helped the Musketeers compile a 3.31 staff ERA through the team's first 27 games. "We made a huge turnaround from winning six games last year to 17 this year," Fullerton said. "This is a good team, and in the Marmonte League, the fifthand sixth-best teams are good enough to see the postseason."
Note: Because of the three-way logjam for fourth place, the league held a tiebreaker beginning Thursday afternoon with Moorpark playing Calabasas at Simi Valley High. The winner plays Westlake Friday at Conejo Creek Park South in T.O. |
for larger version       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
)