Vintage struggles to get big hit, sees season come to an end to Ukiah in pitchers duel
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
In a pitcher’s duel, one run may as well be 100. We saw this in game 7 of the 2014 World Series where one run was monumental for the San Francisco Giants and ace Madison Bumgarner as they hoisted the trophy after it was all over.
On Wednesday afternoon, No. 9 seed Ukiah was able to push a run across in the sixth that would hold up as they beat No. 8 Vintage 1-0 in the opening round of the CIF North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs.
The lone run of the game came in the sixth inning. Caleb Ford roped a single that curled inside the bag at third base to lead off the inning. He moved to second when Ethan Rinehart grounded out and third on an Austin Ford groundout. Ethan Hoolbrook’s single into right field brought in Ford and would prove to be the game-winning run.
Ukiah (17-9) also had chances to score in the fifth and seventh but were unable to come up with a big hit to expand their lead.
Vintage (12-13) had a hard time getting the money hit once again. They were 0-for-4 when hitting with a runner in scoring position in the game. Following Avina’s double, they were unable to score. They also put runners on in the seventh after Gomez had doubled and Hall was walked intentionally before their season ended with two straight outs.
The Crushers also had a hard time getting anything going off of Ukiah pitcher Luke Schat.
After all, Schat was insanely good on this day. He started the day by throwing four perfect frames before Carson Hall got the Crushers’ first hit of the game with a single up-the-middle in the bottom of the fifth. Schat ended the day with six strikeouts and just one walk as well, which came as an intentional walk to Hall in the final frame.
“Hey, he did that last time we played,” Vintage manager Billy Smith pointed out of the March 18th meeting where they beat the Wildcats 8-5. “But we got on him early. They had a good game plan on us and they executed it. That’s a good pitcher and he pitched really good, kept us off-balance, and hats off to him.”
The other two Crusher hits came on doubles. Lucas Avina sent a double into the left-center gap in the sixth and Sam Gomez was able to rope a double that just stayed fair inside the left-field line in the seventh.
On the other end of that coin taking a tough loss after pitching well was Erik Kvidahl. The senior threw a complete game striking out six and allowing just one run. He got off to an impressive start in this one by striking out 6 of the first 12 batters he faced.
“I came into the game a little nervous like everybody was because I had never played in at least a playoff baseball game before, so I was nervous,” Kvidahl said of his outing. “Coming in the first inning, came out didn’t have any bumps in the road just came out dealing my defense back me up on everything.”
Kvidahl thinks the group should be remembered for being grinders all season long.
“Just grinding. We grinded every single game,” the senior pointed out. “Definitely the pitching to pitching, we came out and we fought every single game, every single pitch. So definitely our pitching but yeah, we were grinders.”
While the season is over for Vintage, Ukiah will continue on in the playoffs on Saturday afternoon at 1 pm when they visit top-seeded Marin Catholic. You can view the updated bracket here.
