Vintage’s bats heat up to lead them past Napa and to Big Game sweep
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When you have a deep lineup, it’s hard to be stopped.
We’ve seen it in Major League Baseball with teams like the Dodgers, Padres, and Yankees just to name a few. It makes getting through an inning tough.
In Wednesday’s second Big Game baseball of the season, Vintage’s bats showed how potent they can be in their 8-3 win over rival Napa High.
With the game knotted up at three, the Crushers (11-2 overall, 8-1 Vine Valley Athletic League) took the lead in the fifth inning on one of the most exciting plays in baseball – the inside the park home run. The rally started when Alex Dehzad doubled before coming home on a two-run inside the park homer to center field by Gavin Rabanal.
Vintage also added three more in the sixth. A Boden Cooke single brought in Jackson Cole who had made it to second on an error and to third on a wild pitch. Cooke came home on a single by Sam Neal. Lastly, a single by Davide Migotto brought in Neal.
“That’s part of the game,” Vintage manager Billy Smith said of taking advantage of errors. “You just keep putting the ball in play, you make them make plays, things are going to happen.”
Napa (3-10, 1-8 VVAL) tied the game briefly in the fifth when Calvin Snider was hit by a pitch and Elliot Zuidema singled and stole second. A single by Dylan Snider brought in Calvin Snider and Zuidema.
The Crushers pushed across the game’s first runs in the first inning. Dehzad doubled and Rabanal walked to set the table for Migotto who singled and that brought home Dehzad. Rabanal came in on a fielder’s choice by Ian Avalos. Vintage’s last run came when Avalos had ground-rule double to center, reached third on a single by Connor Smith before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Jorge Lopez-Rios.
“This is how we’ve been all year,” Smith explained. “We got up early. They came back, which we knew they would. Ended up putting the ball in play, making things happen. When you have to face our lineup, good pitchers get tired.”
The Grizzlies’ only other run of the game came when Cameron Taylor singled and stole second before coming home when Kaleb Matulich reached on an infield single and moved to second base on an error that brought in the run.
“We’re not going to get to where we want to be as an offense until we can create our own offense,” Napa skipper Jason Chatham explained. “We have been exploiting errors of other teams, but we need to create our own offense.”
Starting for the Crushers and getting a no-decision was Erik Kividahl. The junior worked 4.1 innings on the day. He struck out six and walked two while allowing three runs in 77 pitches.
“Erik did exactly what we wanted him to do,” Smith said of the junior right-hander. “He went out and handled them. He has a heavy ball. You could tell he had a heavy ball today.”
Getting the win relief was Reid McCaffrey. The senior right-hander worked 1.2 innings, striking out two. Austin Whitehead worked the seventh, striking out three batters.
Starting for Napa and taking the loss was Elliot Zuidema. The junior allowed five runs to scoring, three of which were earned in five innings of work. He also struck out three and walked two in 84 pitches. Matulich also worked an inning on the day.
“I thought Elliot and Kaleb both did well,” Chatham said of the pitching. “They did what they do. on the mound, I thought we pitched well enough to be competitive.”
Both teams will be back in action in the coming days. Napa will have a fast turnaround as they’ll host Windsor on Thursday at 4 pm. Meanwhile, Vintage will have their biggest game of the season on Friday when they head to Petaluma to face Casa Grande in what will be a battle for the league title.
The first league meeting between Vintage and Casa Grande saw the Gauchos win 9-2 on May 3rd. In their most recent meeting Saturday, Vintage won 6-3 in a non-league game.
In other VVAL games Wednesday afternoon, Casa Grande beat Justin-Siena 14-2 in five innings. Petaluma beat American Canyon 7-3 as well.
