Benicia breaks through with a big rally to beat Vintage in an extra-inning nailbiter

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By Kyle Foster

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

When a game is close, key hits matter. They decide games. 

In Thursday afternoon’s non-league contest, this is what Benicia did as they beat Vintage, 5-2 in 8 innings.

The Panthers (7-6) won the contest by scoring four times in the eighth to finally seize the lead.

Before that, Benicia scored the opening run of the game in the first to grab the lead early. 

Vintage (2-6) tied things up with a run in the third inning. It all began when Aliyah McDonald singled and singled and then got to second on a wild pitch. A single by Malina Viruet brought in McDonald. 

The Crushers scored once more in the eighth. Sammie Kennedy began as the ghost runner at second base and got to third on a groundout. She scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Ella Gomez. 

Throughout the contest, Vintage had plenty of opportunities to add on and pull away. But they were unable to come away with the big hit to break open the floodgates. In the game, they stranded a whopping 10 runners on base while going 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position. 

“Sometimes it just doesn’t fall in for you,” Vintage first-year head coach Jessica Kerr said. “We got runners on, we got runners in scoring position, and we just weren’t able to push them across.  We’re a young team, and we’re trying to make moves, and people are trying, and that’s all I can ask for. They’re putting the ball in play, and sometimes it just goes right to somebody, and there’s not much you can do.” 

Leading the Vintage offensive attack in the game were McDonald (2-for-4, run), Noelle Rofkahr (2-for-4), Ella Gomez (1-for-2, RBI), and Viruet (1-for-4, RBI). 

Taking a tough-luck loss in the contest was Viruet. The junior right-hander worked 6 ⅓ innings, where she struck out 7 and walked nobody. She gave up 8 hits in the game on 104 pitches. Viruet allowed 5 runs to score, but only 2 of them were earned. 

“Oh man, I think she absolutely was amazing today,” Kerr explained. “In the circle, she moved the ball around. She had great spin, she had great control, she kept us in the ball game the whole time. She worked with her defense. She worked on all the things that we talked about before the game.”

Viruet allowed a run early and then settled down and mowed through the lineup in dominant fashion. 

“She just really found her speed,” Kerr continued. “She found her comfort zone. Like I said, we were moving the ball around, so we weren’t staying consistent, doing any one thing. She was just confident and comfortable throwing everything.” 

Before the season even started, the Crushers were dealt a tough hand with some injuries. And now, injuries are starting to pile up even more. Through this, the team has battled and continued to work. 

“I was just telling them right now, they are resilient,” Kerr said. “We will deal with any card that is dealt our way. They are just, they’re a super solid group of girls. They’re hardworking, they come out every day to get better. They have great focus, and they show tremendous fight. They want it.  And we’ve had a tough little run, and it hasn’t been going our way, but we’re staying resilient through it, and so that would be my word choice would be, they’re resilient.” 

They will now be off until Wednesday, when they visit Justin-Siena at 4:30 pm in a Vine Valley Athletic League contest.