Napa gets offense going early, plays drama-free baseball to beat Sonoma Valley
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When you jump on a team early, it sure takes a lot of the pressure off as the game goes on. It’s even better when it comes to getting back on track in a league that is a meat grinder.
On Friday, the Napa High baseball team jumped on Sonoma Valley early, which helped them pick up a 4-2 victory.
The win also gets the Grizzlies (8-7 overall, 3-2 Vine Valley Athletic League) back in the win column after blowing a four-run lead last Friday in the first Big Game of the season.
Napa High manager Jason Chatham said it was nice to see his team rebound and not have self-inflicted wounds.
“It was a nice game today in the sense that we didn’t bring any drama in terms of self-inflicted wounds in the game,” he explained. “We didn’t walk a lot of guys. We didn’t make a lot of errors, and when you play sort of a drama-free game, you can get on top of a team and you can control the game a little bit, which is how I felt that we did.”
It also helped that the Grizzlies did all their offensive damage early. In the first, they were able to push across a run when Elliott Zuidema singled and came in on a double in the right-center gap by Dylan Snider.
An inning later, Napa plated two more runs. Colby Chambers singled and two batters later, Zuidema was hit by a pitch to set up Snider who brought them both in on a triple into the left-center gap.
In the game, Snider went 2-for-4 with a double, triple, and three RBIs.
“Snider is having a lot of fun right now,” Chatham said. “He puts in more work than anybody and every team has a guy like that. But this guy, he really does put in the work.”
The switch-hitting senior catcher said he came into the game with confidence.
“This day started with a cage, just getting my hands going then came into the game have a lot of confidence,” Snider said. “They weren’t throwing many quality pitches. So I adjusted and hit those mistakes. I did the little things right and just put my barrel out there and just had those big hits.”
The last run for the Grizzlies came in the third when Cameron Taylor drew a leadoff walk and came in when Kaleb Matulich was hit by a pitch.
“Personally, in that inning, I wanted to put a lot of things (plays) on,” Chatham explained. “I was tempted to put on steals or hit-and-runs. But you saw the way the pitcher was losing command of the zone a little bit, and when you see that, you want to let that stuff play out.”
Others having a good day at the plate for Napa were Chambers (1-for-2 single, hit by pitch, run) and Zuidema (1-for-3 single, hit by pitch, two runs), and Matulich (0-for-2 hit by pitch, RBI).
The Dragons (6-8, 3-2 VVAL) scored a run in the third and fourth.
Getting the win was Zuidema. He worked six-plus innings throwing just 78 pitches. He struck out five and walked two while also allowing two earned runs to score. Zuidema also gave up just three hits.
Getting the save was Dylan Newman. In one inning of work, he struck out one in just 13 pitches.
Napa will be back in action Saturday at 3:30 pm when they host Rancho Cotate-Rohnert Park in a non-league game. Both teams will continue league play Wednesday at 4 pm, with games in Napa. Napa High will host defending league champions Casa Grande-Petaluma. Sonoma Valley will return to Napa to face Justin-Siena.
In other VVAL action Friday, Vintage beat American Canyon 6-3, and Petaluma beat Justin-Siena 3-1. To view the updated league standings, head here.
