The Shepherds lose a tough pitchers duel to the Ventura County Pirates by the score of 2-0. This gives the Shepherds their fourth loss in a row and moves their record below .500 to 4-5 as they finish their road trip tomorrow.

Both starting pitchers dominated early in this game as the Shepherds had just three runners on with two walks and one hit in the first four innings. Starter Jackson LoBianco followed suit as he allowed four baserunners through four innings with two hits, a walk and a hit by pitch.

Catcher Rhett Stein helped LoBianco by cutting his baserunners in half, throwing two runners out trying to steal second in the first four innings.

Jackson Lobianco would end the day with six innings pitched with four hits, three strikeouts and 1 earned run.

The Pirates Broke the deadlock in the bottom of the 6th as the leadoff batter got on base with a bunt single and a throwing error allowing him to get to second. The next two batters would bunt the runner over and then bunt him in to give them the 1-0 lead, manufacturing the run in this pitchers duel.

The Pirates padded their lead the next inning with a homerun on a hanging breaking ball over the left field fence, extending the lead to 2-0 which seemed insurmountable the way the game was going in the bottom of the 7th.

That lead would turn out to be the final score as the Shepherds could not find a way to get runners across the plate as they got shut out for the first time this season.

The Shepherds will try to bounce back tomorrow against the Inland Valley Bucs at Cal Poly Pomona at 4:30 PM. To stay up to date on all things Shepherds baseball follow us on Instagram (@shepherds_baseball), Twitter (@SoCalShpherds), Facebook (Southern California FCA Baseball) and our new Tiktok (@Shepherdsbaseball).