Vintage scores early, gets marvelous outing from Gamsby to take VVAL lead
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When you’re facing a tough opponent, it is crucial to score early and get the momentum on your side.
The Vintage softball team did this on Tuesday afternoon, as they beat American Canyon 5-1 to take over the top spot in the Vine Valley Athletic League.
The Crushers (11-1, 5-0 VVAL) scored right away. In the first, Angie Rubalcava led off and was hit by a pitch. She then moved to second on an Audrey Manley sacrifice bunt and got to third on a wild pitch before scoring when Shelby Morse reached on an error.
The Crushers added one more in the second when Raimy Gamsby led off with a single and courtesy runner Jillian Harnois scored on a single by Taylor Lauritsen.
The third is where Vintage was able to erupt for a trio of runs. Morse started the inning with a double to right-center and moved to third when Emily Vanderbilt reached on an error before scoring on a Devin Viruet sacrifice fly to right field. A double by Camila Barboza brought home Vanderbilt, which was followed by a Brianna Allen double that scored Barboza.
“I think that’s one of the main points of softball is taking advantage of mistakes and it really is one of those games of inches,” Vintage first-year manager Megan Lopez said of the third inning where her team took advantage of some mistakes. “So when something happens and you know it’s going to be a tight game and you take care of those mistakes, that adds up and we scored runs off of that.”
Leading the Crushers at the plate was Allen (2-for-3 double, single, RBI), Morse (2-for-4 double, single, RBI, run), Barboza (1-for-2 double, stolen base, RBI, run), Rubalcava (1-for-2 single, run), Lauritsen (1-for-3 single, stolen base, RBI), Gamsby (1-for-3 single), and Vanderbilt (1-for-3 single, run).
“We knew that they were going to try to keep us off-balance,” Gamsby said of her team’s offensive mindset coming into the game. “They have some pretty big pitching over there, so we wanted to find our pitches and we were just focused on knowing the situation and how to move the runners and score runs.”
Getting the win was Gamsby. She started the game perfectly over the first three innings where she struck out all nine batters in the Wolves lineup.
“Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to that kind of stuff,” Gamsby said of her perfect start to the game in the circle. “But I felt good when I started the game.”
Gamsby would finish the game striking out 18 and walking just one in a complete game. In 102 pitches, she gave up a run and one hit.
“Everything was working,” Lopez said. “She’s really been working on her spins and hitting her spots and staying focused inning one through seven. I’m I mean, what can you say she’s killing it.”
The lone hit for American Canyon (12-5 overall, 5-1 Vine Valley Athletic League) came in the top of the seventh when Reagan Jackson hit a solo home run to left-center for the Wolves’ lone run.
“It was a pitch outside and she went with it,” American Canyon manager Roger Harris said. “We had talked about that through the game. We just didn’t make the adjustments and she (Gamsby) was pounding the outside a lot today.”
The Wolves also had chanced to score in the third and fourth when they advanced runners to second base. Yet, they were unable to score in those opportunities.
“You have to be able to play situational softball,” Harris explained. “That means getting bunts down. That means moving the runners over and we just didn’t do that today. We didn’t get our bunts down. We didn’t hit to the right side. When you’re facing a pitcher like that who can move the ball all around the zone, that’s tough.”
Both teams will be back in action on Thursday – weather pending. Vintage will head to Petaluma to face the Trojans. American Canyon will have the league bye on Thursday but will host Redwood-Larkspur. Both games start at 4 pm.
In other VVAL games Tuesday afternoon, Sonoma Valley beat Napa 9-8 and Petaluma beat Justin-Siena 15-3.
To view the updated VVAL standings, go here.
