Pat Caulfield went 3-4 with four RBIs on Monday and Conner Roberts shut down Ventura’s offense, leading SBCC to an 11-2 triumph in a WSC North baseball opener at Pirate Park.
Caulfield, a sophomore outfielder from Burlingame, hit a two-run homer in the third to make it 5-0 and a two-run double in the sixth that boosted the margin to 10-0.
Santa Barbara (8-4, 1-0) collected 14 hits off six Pirate pitchers. The Vaqueros have won four of their last five games, thanks to an offensive eruption of 54 runs (10.8 average) on 67 hits. They’ve racked up five homers, 16 doubles and three triples in the last five outings.
Roberts, a sophomore right-hander from Martinez, was spectacular in his second start. He pitched two-hit, shutout ball for seven innings and struck out 10. Roberts (3-0) has only allowed one earned run in 21 innings. He lowered his ERA to 0.43 and he’s tied for fifth in the state ERA with teammate Ian Churchill.
SBCC’s pitching staff is No. 2 in the state with a 2.14 ERA.
The Vaqueros scored in six of eight innings and tallied 11 runs for the second time in three days. Jacob Bravo and Alex Holets both went 2-4 and Joshua Perlmutter delivered a two-run single in a four-run sixth inning.
Holets had an RBI triple in the second and Nicholas Trifiletti drilled a two-out, pinch-hit homer in the eighth.
The Vaqueros will return to Ventura for another WSC game on Thursday at 2 p.m.