JUNIOR COLLEGE REGIONAL BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : A Win Just Not in the Cards for Moorpark : Raiders: They give No. 2-seeded Rancho Santiago all it can handle before suffering their second loss of tournament, 5-3.

Moorpark College drew a dead man’s hand, aces and eights, and was quickly gunned down in the Southern California regional baseball finals at Riverside.

Moorpark was eliminated after losing its first two games in a challenging draw that included a pair of aces, Steve Trachsel of Fullerton and Jerry Aschoff of Rancho Santiago, and two supporting casts of eight--a highly underrated Fullerton team and a highly rated Rancho Santiago team.

After being drubbed by Fullerton on Friday, Moorpark redeemed itself somewhat by giving second-seeded Rancho Santiago all it could handle in a 5-3 loss Saturday at the Riverside Sports Complex.

Third-seeded Moorpark fell behind, 5-0, after four innings but rallied and had the winning run at the plate when the game ended.

“That wasn’t us (Friday),” Moorpark Coach Ken Wagner said. “I was pleased by the fact that they came back and played well against Rancho Santiago today. This one we felt like we were in it, and maybe with a clutch hit here or there or a gapper we could have won the game.”

Moorpark (24-14) left 10 men on base, and Rancho Santiago (35-11) stranded nine, which left Wagner lamenting his team’s inability to close the gap and Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon lamenting his team’s inability to deal a knockout blow.

“That’s been our problem in the playoffs,” Sneddon said. “We just haven’t gone ahead and nailed the coffin shut.”

Every time Rancho Santiago attempted to put the game out of reach, Moorpark’s Rob Teasdale intervened. Teasdale allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings of relief. In the seventh and eighth he loaded the bases with one out and pitched out of both jams without allowing a run.

“Teasdale did a good job keeping us close,” Wagner said.

With Teasdale shutting down Rancho Santiago, the Moorpark hitters slowly came alive against left-hander Aschoff, who struck out a season-high 10 but walked seven in 8 2/3 innings.

Throwing breaking balls for out pitches, Aschoff (9-3) faced four batters over the minimum in five scoreless innings before Moorpark’s Darin Furlong opened the sixth with a bunt single. Furlong eventually put Moorpark on the board when he scored from third on Henry Schelb’s sacrifice fly.

Furlong scored again in the eighth. He singled to center and came home four batters later on Jason Jones’ infield single.

With two out in the ninth, Furlong rapped his third hit of the day, a line double off the third baseman’s glove, to score pinch-runner Chris Bannon with Moorpark’s third run. Mike Suarez followed with a single to bring cleanup hitter Darren Aurand to the plate representing the winning run.

Scott McCorgary then entered in relief of Aschoff and earned his sixth save when Aurand popped out in foul territory to end the game.

In two games in the regional finals, Moorpark scored only four runs and had only 14 hits. The fastball-hitting Raiders had difficulty adjusting to the off-speed offerings of Trachsel and Aschoff.

“Our bats just went sour, just went cold,” Furlong said. “If we would have hit more to right field, I think we could have pulled things out (against Rancho Santiago).”

Rancho Santiago scored in the second on Marty Neff’s solo home run--his 16th homer of the season but first since April 17. The Dons added three in the third. Moorpark starter Willie Leighton (5-4) walked the first two men he faced in the inning and both scored.

In the fourth, Teasdale walked the leadoff batter, who scored Rancho’s final run.

Rancho Santiago lost to Fullerton, 13-5, in the second game Saturday and was eliminated from the tournament.