Camarillo Staff Takes Another Royal Beating

CAMARILLO —  Coach Scott Cline of Camarillo High wore a thin smile Wednesday as he sat in the dugout before his team’s Marmonte League baseball game against Royal.

“Have you come to see us use all seven of our pitchers?” he asked several visitors.

Cline wasn’t far off after Royal laid a 14-4 whipping on Camarillo and made mincemeat of five Scorpion hurlers.

Had the 10-run rule not halted the game with Royal batting and two out in the sixth inning, several other Camarillo hurlers were poised to take their lumps.

Royal (14-4, 7-1 in league play), which solidified its grasp on first place, won its seventh consecutive league game and hit three home runs, boosting its season total to 30.

Camarillo (16-5, 6-3) has had a forgettable week, allowing 33 hits and 26 runs in two games.

“They have one of the best hitting teams in the league but we knew we’d get to their pitching,” said Royal pitcher Mike Byer (6-2), who had two hits and three runs batted in. “I knew I just had to keep [the score] reasonable and we’d be fine.”

Camarillo is indeed hurting on the mound. Five Scorpion pitchers were shelled Monday in a 12-1 loss to Westlake and no one seems capable of stopping the bleeding.

“It’s not something we can fix until somebody steps up,” Cline said. “You have to see if you can outscore somebody.”

Royal took a 2-0 lead in the first on a solo home run by Tony Ortega followed by consecutive doubles from Brett Wayne and Byer. Camarillo used Jay Caligiuri’s single, Joe Yingling’s triple and a passed ball to forge a 2-2 tie in its half of the inning.

Royal scored twice in the second when Scott Rice hit a solo home run and Bobby Egan singled home Anthony Gallo. The Highlanders increased their lead to 5-2 in the fourth with a solo home run by Egan, who along with teammate Jason Bowers, had three hits.

The turning point came in the Camarillo fourth after the Scorpions closed to 5-4 on a two-run home run by John Rodriguez.

Consecutive bunt singles by Dustin Adams and Justin Collins and a Royal throwing error gave Camarillo runners on first and third with none out.

As Byer prepared to pitch, Collins broke off first and Adams off third. In the ensuing rundowns, Adams was tagged out and Collins retreated to first.

Caligiuri followed with a single into the left-field corner but Collins was thrown out at third and Camarillo did not score again.

“I saw the expression on Byer’s face after [Rodriguez’s home run] and he knew we were getting something going,” Yingling said. “Then we made some mistakes and they got two huge outs.”

Royal left the bases loaded in the fifth but exploded for seven hits and nine runs in the sixth.

Byer allowed 10 hits and four earned runs, striking out four.

Geoff Abbott (5-1) of Camarillo surrendered eight hits and four earned runs in the first three innings. His relievers included Yingling, who gave up three hits and six earned runs in one-third of an inning.