Moorpark Takes Care of No. 1

CAMARILLO — Moorpark is a sleepy little town west of Simi Valley, right? On Saturday, Simi Valley played quietly while Moorpark became Boomtown.

Moorpark High’s baseball team, hailing from the small-school Frontier League, got 10 hits and a complete game from an improbable starter to beat big Simi Valley, 9-5, and win the championship of the Camarillo tournament.

Simi Valley, the Big Maroon Machine, is ranked No. 1 in the Valley by The Times and returned key players from its 1993 team that reached the Southern Section Division I final. Losing pitcher Bill Scheffels is one of them.

The Musketeers? They are unranked and entered the season as an unknown quantity in Division IV. Both teams are 13-3.

“When I went to sleep last night, this was on my mind,” said Moorpark’s Jason Adamson, his voice shaking with emotion. “I thought we had a legitimate chance, but this is one of the greatest feelings of my life.”

Adamson bashed a 360-foot triple to right-center field, then scored on winning pitcher Ryan Huisenga’s single in the bottom of the sixth inning to make it 9-4. Adamson went two for three, scored two runs and drove in two. Huisenga was also two for three and drove in a run.

Coach David Rhoades was more concerned with Huisenga’s arm than his bat, however. The junior right-hander had no starts, only 10 innings of work, a 5.13 earned-run average and--after throwing 30 pitches and spotting Simi Valley a 2-0 lead in the first--a tired arm.

But fatigue made Huisenga’s fastball sink and kept the Pioneers scoreless in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Huisenga (1-0) wasn’t fazed when Ryan Hankins (three for three, three RBIs) homered with one out in the seventh.

Huisenga struck out Scheffels and got Brian Kavanagh to fly to center for the final two outs. “I just put Hankins’ home run out of my mind,” Huisenga said. “By then, I knew we were going to win.”

Moorpark tied the score, 2-2, in the bottom of the first on Craig Weaver’s check-swing single to left. The Pioneers led, 4-2, after the top of the second. But Bill Finnerty’s two-run double in the bottom of the second highlighted a three-run rally.

The Musketeers added two in the third and two in the sixth as Scheffels (5-1) labored, walking seven and throwing 127 pitches.