Musketeers can't slow down red-hot Highlanders
Loss drops Moorpark's league record to 0-3
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

TIMING IS EVERYTHING- Moorpark's Dewey Gratton, left, tags out Royal's Mike Vinyard. Vinyard was attempting to steal second base and was caught returning to first base.

With powerhouse teams like Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Newbury Park all in the Marmonte League, not many people figured Royal High's baseball team would make much of a difference in the league standings this year.

Try telling that to Moorpark.

MHS became the Highlanders' 10th straight victim Wednesday afternoon when the Musketeers were defeated 7-1 at home.

Moorpark, who came into the game struggling at the plate with a .196 team batting average, could only muster four hits off righthander Tanner Peters, who went the distance for his first win of the season.

"Peters had good stuff today because he constantly threw strikes," Moorpark head coach Scott Fullerton said. "They have a good defense over there, too, and even when their defense started to play poorly for a while, (Peters) would just pick them up with a good pitch."

The Musketeers fell behind 2-0 in the first inning thanks to an RBI double by Royal's Kenny Walden and an RBI triple in the right-field gap by Andy Morris.

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers HE'S OUT- Royal pitcher Tanner Peters has the ball in his glove at home plate waiting as Moorpark's Dewey Gratton tries to score. The Musketeers lost to the Highlanders 7-1 and are now 0-3 in league.

Moorpark looked like they would put up a good fight with the Highlanders in the bottom half of the second inning when they came back to score a run because of a heads-up base running play by junior Andy Garcia.

After a single by Garcia, Musketeer catcher Brandon Tucker laid down a perfect bunt between the pitcher and third base. With nobody covering third on the play, Garcia continued to run from first to third. When the throw to third got away from catcher Justin Czyrklis, Garcia proceeded to dash safely into home where once again, nobody was covering.

"After rounding second we teach our runners to look at third to see if anyone is covering," Fullerton said. "But Andy made an extremely heads-up play when he saw that nobody was covering home. The sad thing is that was the extent of our offense today."

The Highlanders' blunder on the field would be their last.

Peters shortly regained control by not allowing another hit until the sixth inning when Luke Swenson came off the bench to loop a single to left.

Peters' win comes at a good time for Royal, as pitching ace Matt Magill was recently lost for a minimum of two weeks after fracturing his right elbow at a play at home plate last Saturday against Montclair Prep. Moorpark's problems, however, seem to be strictly at the plate.

"We need to get our offense going, and the thing is that it never gets any easier the next day with the pitching in this league," Fullerton said.

"You got to tip your hat to Royal because they had a lot of hits with 0-2 and 1-2 counts. On the flip side, we have to start doing a better job of clutch hitting at the plate."

Although Royal had all the runs it would need, the team added three more insurance runs in the fourth inning to put the game away. Chris Rock had an RBI double down the left-field line, while Billy Chase had an RBI single to left to score Rock just a few moments later.

Chase added another RBI in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly to right field to make the score 61, while Czyrklis added an RBI of his own on a groundout to first to put Royal up 7-1.

The loss puts Moorpark's league record at 0-3 while Royal is now 3-0. Moorpark will play at home today against Agoura, while Royal faces an earlyseason showdown at home vs. Thousand Oaks. Both games are set for 3:30 p.m.