Weather | Beachcam
Login | Contact Us | Staff | Site Map | Archives | Alerts | Electronic Edition | Subscribe to the paper

HomeVC PrepsBaseball

Camarillo continues hot start


Download Podcast  Download this story as a podcast!
Camarillo's Garrett Rau limited Oxnard to five hits in a complete-game victory. He finished with nine strikeouts.

Photo by Chuck Kirman

Camarillo's Garrett Rau limited Oxnard to five hits in a complete-game victory. He finished with nine strikeouts.

Order Photos

Not even Camarillo High's 2002 CIF-Southern Section Division I baseball championship team had a start like this.

Displaying patience at the plate and mastery on the mound, Camarillo won for the 14th time in 15 games, beating Oxnard, 12-1, at home Tuesday in a Pacific View League game.

Camarillo (14-1, 6-0 league) had six of nine hits go for extra bases and Garrett Rau pitched a five-hitter, striking out nine.

Blake Adame had an RBI single and made two outstanding defensive plays for Oxnard (9-3, 5-2). The two teams meet again Thursday at Oxnard.

"Our 1997 team had a start similar to this one," said Camarillo coach Richard Jacquez. "We've passed that historical perspective to our kids; we've had some pretty good teams at Camarillo in the past decade."

Besides its nine hits, Camarillo reached base eight times six walks and two hit batsmen as it scored 10 or more runs for the 11th time this season.

Overlooked by the offensive fireworks has been the Camarillo pitching staff.

Rau and Jonathan Erb are a combined 10-0 record with a 1.10 ERA.

"Both know how to come right after the batter," said Camarillo catcher Mike Yingling, who has been a friend and teammate with the Rau and Erb since he was 12.

"Each has four pitches that they aren't afraid to throw at any time in the count. It makes it fun for me to call the pitches."

Rau was rarely out of the strike zone. Thirty-eight of his first 48 pitches were for strikes.

"That's how he has been all year," said Yingling. "His fastball had pop. He was hitting his spots all day."

Camarillo's pitching staff doesn't stop with those two.

Mike Sliger has a 1.40 ERA in 10 innings of work.

"Mike hasn't pitched that much this year, but he was No. 1 on our staff last year (7-0, 2.61 ERA)," said Yingling.

And third baseman Bryan Willson had a 2.02 ERA in 2006.

"Our staff is really deep," said Yingling.

Jacquez likens Camarillo's pitching to the team's hitting.

"The longer our pitchers go, the better they get," said Jacquez. "Our hitters are that way. After the first time through the order, our hitters get stronger."

Camarillo sent 11 batters to the plate in a six-run third inning. Three walks, an infield hit and two hit batsmen accounted for Camarillo's first three runs. Erb plated the next three runners with a triple to deep center field.

Jacob Mahan was 3 for 4, including a double and triple, and scored three times. Nathan Johnson homered, doubled, had a sacrifice fly and four RBIs. Rau was 2 for 3 and scored three times.

"They're a very good team," said Oxnard coach Al Tarazon.

Discussions
Discuss this article
(Requires free registration.)

Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.

Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.

We do not allow the following:

  • Posts that degrade others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
  • Disparaging remarks, abusive language or obscene comments.
  • Threats, whether obvious or veiled.

We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.

Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.

Username:

Password:
(Forgotten your password?)

Your Turn:

Loading videos... If you don't see them shortly, you may need to download the Flash Player.