Cuesta Baseball completed its season sweep of Western State Conference rival Ventura with a ninth inning comeback, 10-9.  The marked the Cougars their 20th victory of the season, which helps keep them in the post-season hunt.  On the day, the visiting Pirates opened the scoring with a run in the first inning, but the Cougars evened the contest on all-WSC Centerfielder Makani Nabarro's solo home run in the 3rd inning.  The Cougars added four more runs over the next three innings and appeared to be in control of the game, when Ventura's James Luderer returned the advantage to the Bucs with a Grand Slam in the 6th inning, however Nabarro answered with another solo homer in the bottom of the inning re-knot the game, 5-5.  Ventura continued to push the Cougars and outscored the Cuesta, 4-1, over the next three innings Cuesta, now trailing, 9-6, never backed down in front of their home faithful and steeled themselves for a heroic comeback.  The Cougars started slowly with a walk and hit by pitch, but, with two on and two-out, Nabarro stepped into the batter's box to slug his third roundtripper of the contest , while also tying the game, 9-9.  A re-animated Cuesta crowd cheered their Cougars on to victory after Shortstop AJ Martinez Doubled to get into scoring position.  Cuesta's Jak Sinclair and Hank Hansen were both issued free bases for Pinch Hitter Gavin Colombo.  Colombo came through with a "walk-off" single to plate Martinez for the deciding run, 10-9.  The victory keeps the Cougars in the playoff hunt with a 20-17 overall record.  They are among 20 teams in the 3C2A Southern Region that own 20 or more wins on the season, while 24 invitations are allotted for the regional playoffs.   

 

The Cougars host local rival and current WSC Leader Allan Hancock tomorrow (1 PM) for their final regular season home game, before closing conference play on the road next week.  Cuesta will play at Los Angeles Pierce next Tuesday (2 PM) and Moorpark next Thursday (2 PM) to close the regular season.