Tamalpais scores in every inning, takes advantage of errors to beat Vintage in opener
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
In a game, it’s important to take care of the baseball and not make errors. Anytime errors are made, it seems like they always seem to hurt.
On Tuesday afternoon at Crusher Diamond, this is what Tamalpais of Mill Valley did took advantage of mistakes to beat Vintage, 12-2, in a five-inning mercy rule non-league game.
The Red-Tailed Hawks (2-0) scored in every inning of the game. They got their first two runs in the first when Will Gensler reached on an error and moved to second on the play before moving to third on a Henry Stroll double to put runners on second and third with one out. A single by Dara Zolfaghari brought in Gensler and got Stroll to third. A balk later brought in Stroll.
Tamalpais added four more runs in the second to take control of the game. The rally happened with two outs in the inning and started when Cooper Kift doubled down the left-field line and got to third when Gensler reached on an error. Gensler stole second and Eli Solem walked to load the bases. A single by Stroll brought in Kift and Gensler. On an infield single by Zolfaghari, Solem scored. The last run of the inning came in on a wild pitch which allowed Stroll to score.
The Hawks scored 3 more in the third, one more in the fourth, and two in the fifth to gain a mercy-rule lead.
Meanwhile. Vintage (0-1) scored their only two runs of the game in the third. The rally started when Lucas Henry doubled into the right-center gap and moved to third on a Riley Marek bunt single. A sacrifice fly to right field by Parker Dahl brought in Henry. When Blake Porter doubled to right center, Marek came into score.
The Crushers were able to push these runs across by looking for a fastball to do something with.
Leading the Vintage batting attack in the game was Marek. The junior second baseman finished the day by going 2-for-2 with a run scored in the game. He could be a regular contributor from the bottom third of the lineup all season after making his first varsity start at second base.
“He’s a solid kid on and off the field,” Vintage head coach Billy Smith said of Marek. “When you get a solid kid that puts his best foot forward, good things are gonna happen.”
Others hitting for the Crushers in the game were Porter (1-for-2 double, RBI), and Dahl (1-for-2 RBI).
Lefty Jackson Van Til was the winning pitcher in the game for Tamalpais. He pitched four innings, striking out five and giving up just three hits on 53 pitches. He allowed two runs to score, only one of which was earned.
Vintage used a trio of pitchers to get through the game. Taking the loss was Porter who worked the first 1 ⅔ innings of the game. He struck out 3 and walked 2 while allowing 6 runs to score with only 1 of them being earned. In all Vintage pitching allowed 12 runs to score but only 5 of the runs were unearned as the Crushers made 4 errors in the game. Part of the reason why they made so many blunders was the fact it was the first game of the season for a young team.
“I mean, they’re juniors,” Smith explained. “They played a lot of baseball, but it’s their first varsity start. They expected to be good, and the situation dictated it, and they’re all gonna get better. I trust all those kids, it’s just they’re nervous and they wanted to play good, and you just got to go out and you got to learn to play baseball and just play baseball and let it happen.”
While the start of the season isn’t ideal, Vintage won’t have much time to think about it as they will be back in action at 3:30 pm on Thursday when they visit Pinole Valley.
