Four-run fifth leads Napa Valley Baseball Club 19U past American Canyon Mallards and to perfect record in pool play at holiday tournament

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By Kyle Foster

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Follow on Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews 

Yountville-Just because you’re expected to win, it’s going to be easy, especially in baseball. 

In the final game of pool play in the Bill Buckner Memorial 4th of July Invitational Tournament, the Napa Valley Baseball Club 19-and-under team found this out as they had to grind out a win against the American Canyon Mallards, 6-2, in a game played at Cleve Borman Field. 

One of the weird parts of this game came when there was suddenly a brief power outage in Yountville and parts of St. Helena. But oddly enough, this is when the NVBC 19U (17-9-1) got their powerful offense running like a well-oiled machine. In the bottom of the fifth, they scored four times to go up 5-1. 

The rally began when Dario Freschi reached on an error and stole second. He then came into score when Graham Chapouris doubled to left field. A James Burgess double to left-center brought in Chapouris. Then, Ben Sebastiani reached on an error and got to second on the play while also moving Burgess to third. Following a walk by Noah Giovannelli to load the bases, John Alcayaga singled to bring in Burgess and Sebastiani. 

“He was a soft throwing righty but at times, he would get a little sneaky fast if you sat on his offspeed,” Napa Valley Baseball Club 19U head coach Bob Freschi said. “So he’s a little sneaky fast. So we talked about just taking away pitches, just taking away that curveball and get into hitters count and look to drive it opposite field.”

Before this, the Napa Valley Baseball Club 19s pushed a run across in the third when Nigel Clay doubled to left field and got to third on a Blake Porter fielder’s choice. When Kai Guilliksen reached on an error, Clay scored. 

Their last run of the game scored in the sixth. When Porter walked and stole second, he was in position to score from second when Freschi grounded out to first base. 

Leading the NVBC offensive attack in the game were Gulliksen (2-for-2 RBI), Chapouris (1-for-3 double, run, RBI), Burgess (1-for-3

double, run, RBI), Sebastiani (1-for-3 double, run), Alcayaga (1-for-3 2 RBIs), and Freschi (0-for-2 run, RBI). 

American Canyon (6-8) opened the game up by scoring a run in the third inning. It started when Cole Gholar reached on a fielder’s choice and got to second on a Royce Hall single. Following a double steal, Gholar scored on an errant throw into left field on a backpack attempt. 

The Mallards again used some small ball to get their final run of the game in the sixth when Matias Garcia walked and got to second on a bunt single by Sovann Som. On the same play, there was an error to allow each runner to move up a base and Garcia was run for by Spencer Watson. On a groundout by Bradley Keefer, Watson scored. 

Leading the American Canyon offense in the game was Gholar (1-for-3 run), Andre Lopez (1-for-3 walk, double), Som (1-for-3), Caden James (1-for-3), and Hall (1-for-4). 

Getting the win in the game on the mound for NVBC was Lucas Henry. The left-hander worked the first 6 innings where he struck out 3 and walked 2. 

“Well I dropped my arm angle down a little bit,” Henry said of his outing. “I was kind of up closer to full and I moved down a little more sidearm. So my two-seamer had some run and I feel like I was able to get like a lot of weak contact, ground balls in that. I still gotta work on my off speeds but my fastball was working today really good.” 

He also allowed 2 earned runs while throwing 83 pitches and giving up 4 hits. 

“Lucas was phenomenal,” the skipper said of the lefty. “His best outing of the year to go six strong in this environment.  It was much needed for our pitching staff to go that deep into the ballgame. But, I mean, he was just in attack mode and playing with confidence.” 

He was relieved in the game by his twin brother Miles. The right-hander came in worked a scoreless frame and allowed a hit on 13 pitches. 

Pitching well but taking the loss for the Mallards in the game was Garcia. He struck out 2 and walked on while giving up 7 hits in 5 innings of work. The righty threw 75 pitches and allowed 5 runs to score, 1 of which was earned. 

“He threw a lot of strikes and didn’t give up too many free passes, and pitched to weak contact,” Brown explained. “He took his strikeouts when he could get them, and I thought he did a great job.”  

Keefer worked the final frame where he gave up a walk and struck out one. He also gave up one run in 14 pitches. 

This was also the end of the road for the Mallards in the tournament. They played three close games but couldn’t come through with a win. 

“We had a meeting yesterday and just talked about the point of summer baseball is building on what you’ve learned in the spring, and making sure that the reps that we were getting, were good reps, quality reps that we’re building on what we’ve learned,” Brown said of his young team that is still growing. “I really thought our guys did that today.”  

American Canyon will be back in action on Thursday when they host Community Projects of Napa Crushers at 5:30 pm. 

With the win, the NVBC 19s locked up Pool 2 with a perfect record during their first three games. They will face the South San Francisco Trojans who finished as the Pool 1 runner-up at 12:15 pm on Sunday. The winner of that game will face the winner of the 9 am semifinal that pits the San Francisco Cardinals vs San Bruno V.F.W. who was runner-up in Pool 2. The championship game will start at 3 pm or 30 minutes after the second semifinal ends. There will be an awards presentation after the title game ends. 

In the opener on Thursday, South San Francisco beat the NVBC 17U team 6-1. 

There will be a snack bar available all day long. The admission price is $5 and the speed limit at the Veterans Home is 15 mph.