Moorpark baseball a ‘forever team’ after a one-of-a-kind season
It was an unforgettable season for the Moorpark baseball team — although not in the ways that it anticipated.
The Musketeers were tested, broken and revived in a season that included judgment calls, extra innings and perpetual runner-up status. But at the end of it all, they were united.
“We call this our ‘forever team,’ ” Moorpark coach Aaron Garcia said. “We’re a group that has gone through so much together that we’ll never be disbarred from each other. Its going to be a relationship that’ll last all the way through until we’re done.”
Moorpark finished as the Coastal Canyon League runner-up and went on to become the CIF Southern Section Division 2 runner-up. The team accepted the opportunity to compete in the CIF Southern California Regional Division II playoffs as part of the longest playoff run in program history and, again, were the runner-ups.
“The heartbreak on dropping that game, it was heavy,” Garcia said of the regional championship game.
The Musketeers fell, 6-5, to Liberty in Bakersfield on Saturday evening in 10 innings. They steadily scored runs across the second, third and fourth innings but gave up four runs in the bottom of the seventh frame.
Sophomore AJ Mai hit his first career home run in the game and junior Cam Johnson hit a two-run home run, but Liberty ended the game with a walk-off double in the 10th inning.
The regional championship, however, marked emotional growth for the Musketeers. They were able to bounce back in the eighth inning to score a run and keep the game going.
Moorpark was tested emotionally in the CIF-SS championship game when a hit that was originally called a walk-off home run became a ground-rule double after a judgment call. The Musketeers were unable to score after that moment, and Hart held them off to win the Division 2 title.
“For them to drop four runs in the bottom of the seventh (against Liberty) and come back in the next inning and put on another run, we knew that they were focused and they were in the game,” Garcia said. “To be able to put the emotions aside and move forward and play the game of baseball at the level that they need to be playing was just such a huge factor and they did it.”
The Musketeers became one of the most talked-about high school baseball teams in Southern California baseball and drew immense community support. The stands were full for home games and additional fans parked their cars and brought chairs up to the outfield fence
@haleymsawyer Moorpark baseball shut out Bell to move on to the CIF SoCal Regional semifinals. #journalist #reporter #baseball #sports #highschoolbaseball #highschoolsports #moorpark #conejovalley #venturacounty
They’re beginning to part ways for the summer and six seniors have graduated in Michael Leddy, Jacob Shannon-Wilkerson, Greg Lareva, Robert Perez, Logan Baker, Jackson Pryor and Danny Lopez.
Still, Moorpark is still finding ways to be a team — they even challenged a Moorpark Little League 8-year-old team to a game.
The forever team keeps on going.