Toland’s walk-off single puts exclamation point on Napa Valley’s late-inning rally to beat City College of San Francisco
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Getting clutch hit always goes a long way when it comes to winning baseball games.
In the final two innings on Tuesday afternoon, the Napa Valley College baseball team hit well with runners in scoring position to score a 4-3 walk-off victory over City College of San Francisco.
The Storm was able to win the game in the bottom of the ninth on a Tyler Toland single to right field, which brought in Eric Thomas. Thomas led off the inning with a single before getting to third by on an overthrow of second base on his steal.
“Really was just trying to stay calm.,” Toland said of his walk-off winning at-bat. “Do a baseball job for the team, look for a pitch that I could drive, and get a hold of and do some of a barrel on it.”
Napa Valley (4-5) entered the last half of the eighth inning down by two. They were able to knot things up at 3 when AJ McMahon reached base on a fielder’s choice and scored on a single by Angel Cota. Alec Nunes single scored Wyatt Dorman who reached base on an infield single.
Entering the 8th inning, Napa was a mere 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. They left 8 runners stranded on the day.
“We just started getting more life,” Toland explained as to what changed in the last few innings where Napa was 3-for-4 with runners in scoring position. “We never gave up, always kept on fighting, and we know that game’s not over until the last out of the ninth inning. So we just kept on battling.”
Napa Valley College skipper Dan Parker said they’re still waiting for their offense to come around this early in the season.
“I think it’s just gonna take a minute we know our offense is gonna come around – it always does,” he explained. “I actually think it’s forcing our pitching to get better as we go.”
Napa’s only other run of the game came in the first inning. After leading off the inning with a double, Marcus Steen moved up to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a groundout by Chris Blyskal.
City College of San Francisco (1-6) opened the game with two runs in the top of the first, both of which came off of two-out walks.
The Rams also pushed one more run across in the eighth as well.
Starting the game and getting a no-decision for the Storm was Erik Altemus. The sophomore right-hander worked 8 innings on 120 pitches, giving up three earned runs on six hits. He also struck out six and walked two.
“I had the fastball working pretty good,” Altemus said. “My slider was working pretty good too. I really get catcher behind the plate today – that’s about it.”
Getting the win in relief was Ronald Rodin. In an inning of work, he gave up just one hit and struck out one as well.
“honestly, it gave us some momentum going into that last half (inning),” Parker added “He just absolutely shoved and did so well. It really put us in a position to win baseball games.”
After earning a series split, Napa Valley College will be back in action this weekend when they host College of the Redwoods from Eureka in a three-game set. On Friday, they’ll play a doubleheader with games at noon and 3 pm. The teams will play the final game of the series on Saturday at noon.
