While many other sports teams at Ventura High School had their rivalry week against Buena High School weeks ago, VHS Baseball, due to rain and lost time, rescheduled their “Buena Week” for May 7 through May 11. The teams played three games against each other throughout the week, with varsity games on Monday, May 7, Tuesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 10. The team’s record this season was 6-15 leading up to Buena week, which meant that to make it to playoffs, VHS had to beat Buena in every game.

Unfortunately, BHS won the first game on Monday, May 7 2-0, meaning that Ventura Baseball would not be going to playoffs. The following game, played at Buena, Tuesday, May 8, was a steep loss for Ventura High School, ending as 6-2 with a win for Buena. During this game a fight broke out on the field between players from the rival schools.

“Our player stole home and the Buena [High School] catcher stood in front of the plate and our player didn’t slide. He kind of just went right into the guy and then both of them started pushing each other,” sophomore and starting varsity pitcher Aidan Garza explained.

“Then the Buena [High School] players charged the field. There were a couple guys on our team that got involved, that’s about it,” Garza elaborated.

After the fight, four players were suspended from each team. Three of the four suspended players from VHS allege that they did not participate in the fight. The suspensions from each team were given based off the coach’s authority from each school, meaning that valuable players were taken out even if they were not guilty, according to the suspended players. “The umpires called out the number that they saw on the field and then they suspended those players, even if they weren’t on the field,” said Garza.

“One of the rumors is, that they could pick four starters from that game or four substitutes… [That’s] what the Buena coaches told their players,” said junior Billy Maxwell.

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However, the suspensions only lasted for a single day rather than the entire week because of the need for players on the last game of the season, on Thursday, May 10. “In order to make the three games work Mr. Hess had to revoke the suspension, because JV wouldn’t have been able to play if Buena had to pull out players,” explained Maxwell. The game ended with a win for VHS 4-1.