Napa takes advantage of walks in come-from-behind victory over Vanden
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Taking advantage of walks will go a long way when it comes to winning a baseball game.
That’s what the Napa High baseball team did in their come-from-behind 8-6 victory over Vanden-Fairfield on Wednesday afternoon.
The turning point for the Grizzles (4-1) came in the bottom of the fifth when they scored four times to knot things up at 6. A Calvin Snider walk brought in Trent Maher who walked to begin the inning. After that, Connor Ross roped a ball on the right side of the infield, which ate up Vanden’s third baseman and brought home Lucas Brandon and Daniel Healy who both walked earlier in the inning. Finally, a Dylan Snider single scored Calvin Snider.
“We did want to get into the bullpen,” Napa skipper Jason Chatham explained. “I think that’s just good high school baseball. Generally speaking, when teams have multiple games in a week once you get into the pen, you might be able to get a little bit of an advantage. We did want to get into the pen, we did get into the pen, and once we did I felt like our approach got even better. We laid off bad pitches and we let the game come to us.”
Napa took the lead in the bottom of the sixth when they pushed two more across. It all started when Brandon singled and later scored on a Calvin Snider double to left-center field. After singling, Ross came home on a single by Dylan Snider.
“Calvin and Dylan didn’t have their best day yesterday,” Chatham added. “You could see in their eyes before the game they were ready to make an adjustment and they did. I thought they were ready today.”
The Grizzlies scored their first run of the contest in the bottom of the third when Dylan Snider doubled and then scored on a Travis Brayton single. Finally, the only other run came in the fourth when Ross singled and was pinch-run for by Joe Laliberte who scored on a Dylan Snider single.
Vanden (2-2) scored the game’s first run in the top of the first. They also scored four in the third, followed by one more in the fifth.
Omar Gonzalez started the game for Napa. He went five innings and threw 92 pitches to get a no-decision. He also gave up six runs, all of which were earned.
“We asked Omar to come out and throw a lot of offspeed stuff to try to keep guys off-balance,” Chatham said of his starter. “And I’m gonna be honest, Omar didn’t have his best game today. But the difference was last year if Omar didn’t have his best game, things got bad. This year, Omar didn’t have his best game, but I think the offense picked him up.”
The winning pitcher on the day was Nick Raymond. He threw 13 pitches that inning.
“It was the perfect role for him,” Chatham said. “We needed to transition to show a different look. Nick came in and threw strikes. He gave up that that one hit but then other than that, I think he got some pretty soft contact and got us out of the inning. He did a really good job and that’s a critical role right there.”
Recording the save was Maher. In the seventh, he walked two and struck out nobody. He also threw 28 pitches that frame. But the biggest play of all came with the bases loaded and two outs when Brandon made a diving catch in right field to save what would’ve been a go-ahead triple.
“Trent’s got good stuff,” Chatham pointed out. “He didn’t get warm in the pen. We decided playing hard catch out there in the outfield and then he just transitioned right to the mound. I thought he did a great job. He gives you a competitive inning whenever he goes out there.”
Napa will be back in action on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. when they host Rodriguez-Fairfield.
