Baseball: Justin-Siena edges Piner in season-opener
Story courtesy of Jeremy Tayson, Justin-Siena baseball
For the second straight year the Justin-Siena Baseball Braves opened up the season with a 2-1, 9 inning walk off win.
With daylight near gone, senior Alex Kirley did the honors for the Braves (1-0) ripping a single down the left field line to plate senior Maxx Castellucci for the winning run. The evenly-matched affair comes a year after the Braves tied these very same Piner Prospectors 5-5 on the road in Santa Rosa.
“It’s pretty fair to say these are two teams that match up well with each other,” Justin-Siena coach Jeremy Tayson said. “We leaned on our experience hard today and our guys responded to everything that went for and against us today. It’s what good teams do.”
Pitching ruled the day for both sides with senior starter Luigi Albano-Dito (3 and 1/3 IP 2H, 2k, BB) and relievers junior Nolan Dunkle (3IP, ER, 2H, 5K, 3BB), freshman Nick Andrews (1 and 2/3 IP, K), and senior Will Natuzzi (W, IP, K, BB) holding the Prospectors to 4 hits and the lone run in 9 innings.
Offensively, the Braves tallied 9 hits with Kirley (2-5 r, RBI), sophomore Noah Young (single), Albano-Dito (2-3, HBP), senior Dom Moore (single), Castellucci (single, run) and Natuzzi (2-3, HBP) pacing the club. Senior center fielder Tommy Lopez made a diving catch in the 2nd inning before doubling off a Piner runner from second to thwart an early rally. “
