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The Ventura County Pirates scrimmaged the Cal Tech Beavers in the latter’s only game of the 2021 season on Saturday, May 29th at the Glendale Sports Complex.
Cal Tech head coach, Kevin Whitehead, coached in the Ventura County Pirates organization in summer 2018. Whitehead was the head coach of the VC Pirates in the Sunset Baseball League that season and took the team to the league championship series against the Long Beach Legends before losing the 2-out-of-3 final series. The 2018 season was also the last year in which the VC Pirates organization fielded 3 teams, and the top team played as an independent and affiliated to the California Collegiate League.
Whitehead coordinated the scrimmage with Pirates General Manager George Vranau as a way to reward his players for practicing all year even though the Beavers’ season was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
“The significance of this game was being able to see the work get paid off, having the carrot at the end of the stick,” Whitehead said. “These guys worked really hard. . . so having that full game is just a different feeling.”
The game also marked the first scrimmage for the Pirates in preparation of their 2021 summer season.
“The scrimmage allows us the opportunity to get some players out here who are probably a little bit rusty and haven’t had playing time, and it gives an opportunity for the coaches to meet some of the players that are going to be on our three teams,” Vranau said.
The Scrimmaged was coached by SBL Bucs head coach Evan O’Meara and GCCL Bucs head coach Spiro Psaltis. Vranau attended the scrimmage and was pleased with the effort put forth by his players.
“I saw players out there giving their best effort and certainly enjoying the fact that they had the opportunity to play baseball.”
The Pirates led the scrimmage 9-7 after nine innings, but both coaching staffs planned to keep playing until all their available pitchers had been used. Cal Tech came out on top at the end, winning 14-11 in 14 innings.
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