Baseball: Justin-Siena notches road wins against St. Helena, Hayward
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The Justin-Siena baseball team notched back-to-back road wins on Thursday and Friday.
Justin-Siena 12, St. Helena 2
Taking advantage of a break in the rain, the Justin-Siena Braves scored early and often to down the St Helena Saints on the road Thursday. The Braves tallied 11 hits and 8 steals in the game in scoring 2 each in the first and second and 4 each in the 6th and 7th.
Senior Ethan Wesson made his first varsity start and threw two scoreless innings giving up a hit, striking out three, and walking four buoyed on defense by senior catcher John Horn who’s backdoor inning-ending pick-off of a runner in the first ended a potential threat to get the Saints back in the early. Wesson would be relieved by freshman Nick Andrews who threw 3 innings and gave up two runs, both unearned. He gave up three hits, struck out three, and walked two in middle relief, battling out of a jam in the third. Luigi Albano-Dito would finish them game throwing two scoreless innings. He only gave up one hit, but struck out four, and walked one.
Offensively, nine different Braves would tally a hit. Alex Kirley (2-4, 2R, SB), Noah Young (1-3, 2BB, R, RBI, 2SB), Maxx Castellucci (1-2, 2BB, R, RBI, SB, sac fly), Nolan Dunkle (1-3, R, HBP, 2SB), Horn (1-4, BB), Marcus Nunes (1-2, BB, R, 2B), Will Natuzzi (2-3, BB, 2R, 3RBI, 2SB), Dominic Moore hit, run, James Snoke hit, Christian Kappler BB, run Billy Katz run, and Bodie Upson Run.
Justin-Siena 10, Hayward 5
Backing up Thursday’s 12-2 win with another strong outing Friday, the Justin-Siena Braves pounded out 16 hits and beat the Hayward Farmers 10-5 on the road in a key early season North Coast Section Division III game. After leaving two on in the first, the Braves (3-1) would score six in the second. John Horn (1-3, 2R, BB, SB) led off the inning with a walk, stole second and was moved to third by a Marcus Nunes bunt to bring up freshman Nick Andrews (2-3, 2R, 3RBI, 2B, SB, HBP). With the infield in, Andrews singled up the middle to give the Braves a lead they would never give back. After tallying three more runs in the inning, junior Nolan Dunkle (2-4, R, 2RBI, 2B) would punctuate the rally with a booming two RBI double to right center.
“To go on the road this time of year and pick up wins on back to back days is big,” Justin-Siena coach Jeremy Tayson said. “Runs can be hard to come by at times at this level so to see our bats wake up in this way was awesome. Even our outs today were loud and we showed a bit of what our potential can be as an offensive team today.”
On the mound Dunkle (W, 4IP, 2ER, 4H, 7K, 0BB) made his first start of the season and went nine up, nine down through his first three innings of work before a good hitting Hayward team caught up to him in the fourth and rallied for 2 runs on four hits. In the fifth the Farmers would again plate two before the Braves responded with three in the top of the 6th with Andrews delivering the big blow on a two out, two RBI double over the center fielder’s head. Senior Alex Kirley would record his first save of the season going 1 ⅓ innings, allowing an unearned run in the game’s 6th and final frame as the game was called for darkness.
Rounding out the box score was Kirley (2-4, R, RBI, 2B, 2SB), Noah Young (1-4, R, RBI, 3b), Luigi Albano-Dito (3-4, 2R, 2B, SB), Maxx Castellucci (3-3, R, RBI, BB, 2B, SB) and Will Natuzzi (2-4, RBI).
The Braves will host Terra Linda Tuesday at 4 p.m. in another D3 matchup against their former MCAL opponent.
