Vintage’s bats come to life early to lead them past Petaluma
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When you have stellar pitching, it’s nice to jump out to a big lead.
That’s what the Vintage softball team did in their win against Petaluma on Thursday afternoon. The win is also a big one for Vintage since it moves them into second place in the league standings, striking distance away from the league lead.
“It was huge,” Vintage manager Robert Poppe explained of the victory’s importance. “It was a good test for us because AC on Tuesday was our first loss of the season. So it was interesting to see how we were going to respond. I thought we responded well.”
The Crushers (6-1 overall, 5-1 Vine Valley Athletic League) put up a four-spot in the first inning. When Brianna Allen reached by way of an error, it brought in her sister Jordan Allen and Taylor Lauritsen who was the courtesy runner for Shelby Morse who was hit by a pitch. Brianna Allen and Bianca Avalos came home on a Brianna Perez single. Avalos reached on a fielder’s choice earlier in the frame.
“We were kind of coming out here thinking we have nothing to lose,” Morse explained. “I think that we executed very well on making sure that we’re making contact, getting to that point, and it’s contagious.”
“I just jogged a few people around in the lineup today,” Poppe said as to what jump-started the bats. “The same girls are still in there – just played some musical chairs to see if we could spark each other and it seems to work.”
Vintage also added a run in the third. When Brianna Fry reached on an error, that brought in Kelsey Lauritsen. Lauritsen had single and moved up to second on a wild pitch.
The Crushers scored twice more in the fourth. Morse singled with back-to-back walks by Avalos and Emily Vanderbilt after. That set up a based loaded situation for Brianna Allen who doubled and that brought in Taylor Lauritsen and Avalos.
Petaluma (6-3, 4-2 VVAL) scored their only two runs of the game in the top of the seventh on a Myranda Lynch two-run homer to left-center.
Getting the win in the circle was Morse. In six innings of work, she threw 119 pitches and allowed just two hits, with two earned runs. She also struck out seven and walked three. Morse also carried a no-hit bid through five innings of work.
“I thought Shelby was amazing today,” Poppe emphasized. “Hit a lot of her spots.”
“The pitch calling was on point,” Morse added. “Honestly, the batters were swinging at a lot of my pitches, which when that happens it works in my favor. But I think getting ahead and getting them to chase pitches was good.”
The early lead also helped Morse relax in the circle.
“It does feel nice,” she explained. “It’s a little difficult when you don’t have your insurance runs. It was nice to have runs on the board. It makes little mistakes or errors or whatever thing doesn’t seem such a big deal. You don’t think about it too much when you’re making an error or anything like that. It kind of comes down everybody, not just me.”
Both teams will be back in action at home on Monday at 4 pm. Petaluma will face Montgomery-Santa Rosa in a nonleague game. Meanwhile, Vintage will host Justin-Siena to start the second round of league play.
In the only other VVAL game Thursday, Casa Grande beat Napa 11-0.
