Vintage makes adjustments at plate to get a pair of key hits, dominant pitching effort to beat American Canyon and get much-needed win
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
There is nothing better than doing the things needed to finally get a win. After all, baseball is a grind to do things right.
On Saturday afternoon at Crusher Field, Vintage put all three phases needed to win together as they beat American Canyon, 3-0, in a Vine Valley Athletic League contest. The win ends an 8-game losing streak and takes some weight off the team’s shoulders as well.
“It means we can stop talking about it and I don’t have to answer that question anymore,” Vintage head coach and skipper Billy Smith happily explained. “The hardest part is the kids kept grinding and today it showed. That’s a good American Canyon team and they threw their best at us. It was a good battle and we left a couple of runs out early that was making me nervous when it was 1-0. After the first, I think we could have gotten another one to make it two. But we were playing tentative on the base pass and that’s usually what happens when you’re in a little rut.”
It also helped that the Crushers (5-10 overall, 2-5 VVAL) scored right away in their half of the first. It all started when John Bullock drove a looping double that stayed fair down the left-field line and then moved to third on a single by Ian Fernandez. Then, Carson Hall singled into short left field to bring in Bullock and give Vintage a 1-0 edge.
“He’s a good hitter right now, especially as a sophomore,” Smith said of Bullock who is the team’s second hitter. “He makes contact and it’s just he finally got the barrel up a ball a little bit and finally found the inside of the chalk line. He’s always battling every at-bat. He’s always battling and it’s hard to get him out of a lineup when he when a kid does that every at-bat.”
In the fifth, Vintage scored once more to go up 2-0. Fernandez began the inning by walking and then stealing second, and then coming in when Noah Piersig scalded a single into left field.
Finally, the Crushers scored their final run of the game in the sixth to go up 3-0. Alec DeHaro reached on a bunt single and then got to third on Gabe Pacheco’s bunt single, where the throw to first went down the right-field line, allowing DeHaro to get to third. He then scored on a groundout to second by Carson McCaffrey.
The game was a welcome sit when it came to getting hits with runners in scoring position as well for Vintage. They were 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the game.
Leading the Crusher batting attack in the game were Piersig (1-for-2 RBI), Fernandez (1-for-2 walk, stolen base, run), Hall (1-for-2 walk, RBI), Grant Menzel (1-for-2), and Bullock (1-for-4 double, run).
The Wolves (7-10, 3-4 VVAL) had their chances to score in this one, but due to a variety of reasons couldn’t get a run across.
In the third, Brandon Torres reached on an infield single and then stole second. However, when Jaedon Mondoza squared around to bunt, Torres was caught in a picked in between second and third and was gunned down at third at the end of the play.
“It’s a close ballgame like this and there’s less room for error,” American Canyon head coach and manager Matt Brown said of the mistakes on the bases. “When we make base running mistakes like that and run ourselves out of innings, those are possibly runs that we should have. And that’s our answer to answering back to their scoring, so yeah, I think there were lost opportunities for sure.”
American Canyon had another chance in the fifth when Kamari Antocich walked and swiped second. In the next at-bat, Archer Hilsabeck struck out to waste the opportunity.
The same can be said about the sixth when Mason Gaskins walked and got to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lorenzo Caoile. Torres came up the next at-bat and scorched a line drive that found DeHaro’s glove and then doubled Gaskins up at second to end the inning.
In the game, American Canyon was 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.
“He’s (Tenscher) got a very low release point that you don’t see a whole lot in high school baseball, and he knows who he is,” Brown said of his team’s struggles to score a run in the game. “He knows what he can do and he’s super effective and he pitched a great game. But it’s something that our guys haven’t really seen. We’re a young team and this is a learning experience for us.”
Leading the offense in the game for the Wolves were Harris (1-for-3) and Torres (1-for-3).
Getting the win on the bump for Vintage was Miles Tenscher. The sidearming junior righty threw a complete game shutout while allowing just a pair of hits on 84 pitches. He also struck out 9 and walked just 2 in the game. This was the second winning decision of the season for Tenscher as well.
“Just getting ahead with the curveball was really working,” Tenscher pointed out. “The early innings, just throwing fastballs everything was feeling really good. Mixing the changeup more than my last couple outings and it just worked and great defense and a great team win.”
This was also just the second start of the season for Tenscher. For most of this season, he’s been used as the closer where he has earned 3 saves as well.
“This was Miles’s game to start and finish and I’m so proud of him,” Vintage head coach Billy Smith explained. “He’s worked for that and he’s wanted to be a starter. But in our plans, having three starters and then him coming into close would’ve been ideal. He had three saves in six games so we were looking like that was a pretty good plan to have, but now he just emerged as our number one and it’s pretty good.”
Taking the loss in the game was Harris. The sophomore worked 6 frames striking out 7 and walking just 2. He also gave up 3 runs in the game, with 2 of them being earned. The right-hander gave up 5 hits as well on 101 pitches.
“Mason has been good for us,” Brown said of his sophomore starter. “I mean, he won here at the end of the season last year and he wanted this game and I felt like he was well prepared. There were a couple of innings that Vintage scored a couple of hits that didn’t go his way. We made some errors on defense and just happens, baseball.”
Both teams will be back in action at the beginning of the week with 4 pm start times. Vintage will play a makeup game against Santa Rosa on Monday. As for American Canyon, they’ll host Sonoma Valley on Tuesday.
