In front of big crowd, Blue beats Gold for 2-0 series lead in Fall World Series filled with Napa connections

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By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

Yountville-When you’re in the middle of a grind before the season starts, a change of scenery can help get to the end. 

It can also be nice to play in front of a new pair of eyes. This is what happened on Saturday when Blue beat Gold, 11-7, to take a 2-0 series lead in the Fall World Series at Cleve Borman Field. 

The game all came together when NVBC reached out to California Athletics about hosting a game and Neu agreed that it would be a good idea. 

“Coach Mike (Neu) was here for a couple (of) years ago over the Fourth of July tournament,” Napa Valley Baseball Club Chris Padowan pointed out. “His son was playing in a tournament. Him and I started talking and I asked ‘You guys ever play games outside of Berkeley?’ And he said ‘We’d love to.’ He got me connected with the sports information office and we made it happen.” 

This was also the second year that this event has taken place. Last season, there was also an intrasquad game at Borman. One of the major differences this time was the fact that more people knew about it through the advertising on social media. 

“I think it means for us, for an organization, is the opportunity to give back to the veterans,” Padowan said of the game’s importance. “It’s been a great day for the vets. Got a lot of veterans out here.” 

Of course, it also helps that the Bears are coached by 1996 Vintage graduate Mike Neu. He spent much of his summers playing at Cleve Borman Field, which made it a full-circle type of moment. He also wanted to give back to the community that he came from with this game. 

The game was in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Veterans Home of California field. Tickets were free for the event. But a donation to the host Napa Valley Baseball Club was encouraged. 

“It was great,” Neu said of the attendance for the game. “It’s why we come up here. We have some local guys with the three of us and then supporting the vets. Then, this is where I grew up playing. So I got to play a lot of games here when I was in high school. So to get back into the community and see the support, hopefully, we can just continue to grow it every year and come every year and just have more and more people show up because it’s a great atmosphere and one of the cooler venues to play in in California. So for our guys to get that and then also get the support from the community, it’s an all-around win.” 

Before the game, he also talked to the team about what it means to play at the Veterans Home. 

“I talked to the team about it before we even started, and just told them that this is a place where I played a lot,” Neu added. “Obviously the support of the vets, and it’s just an environment that’s a little bit unique environment to play in.” 

Another thing that likely helped the attendance of the event was all the connections to the Napa baseball community that are involved with the Golden Bears baseball program. 

One of those main reasons was to catch up with 2024 Vintage graduate Miles Tenscher. He is in the midst of his first semester in Berkeley and is still recovering from some injury stuff and should be ready to go by the regular season. However, he was looking forward to telling his teammates about what it’s like to play at Borman Field. 

“It was super fun just to kind of be back here on this field that I grew up playing on,” Tenscher said of coming back home for the game. “That was really cool experience and it’s fun to be back out in front of the veterans who do so much for us.” 

Besides family, there was a good amount of fanfare to see the newest Bear. It was something that Tenscher was happy to see.

He also had some players ask him questions prior to the game. 

“They asked me a little bit about the field and kind of, how it played and stuff,” Tenscher explained. “Obviously, they did this last year so some of the guys had been up here before in this super beautiful stadium.” 

On top of that, the fall has been a time for new hitting coach and 2005 Justin-Siena graduate Brett Wallace to teach the program some of his techniques with the spring season around the corner. 

“It’s been awesome,” Wallace said of how the players have adjusted to his ideas. “Everyone’s hungry to learn. They want to get better. They want to be the best they can. When you have a group of guys that want to get better and you’re willing to work, it’s a lot of fun to be around them.” 

So far, this fit has been perfect. He has fit in with the rest of the staff very well, which is also what drew him to become the hitting coach. 

“You know, one of the reasons I really was excited about this opportunity was the staff,” Wallace said of the fit. “Getting a chance to work with guys, Mike and Bodie and Chad and stuff, just that everyone wanted to kind of work together. We’re all focused on getting the right group together, and trying to make these players the best they can be.” 

Neu also agrees that Wallace has been a good addition to the staff. 

“Brett, obviously, his experience not only playing, but now getting into coaching, he’s just a really good hitting coach really good communicator,” Neu said. “The guys really like him.” 

In the game, it was a power showcase. The game began with a trio of home runs in the first two innings. In the top of the first, Carl Schmidt singled and then scored when Ryan Limerick roped a two-run blast down the left-field line. 

In the bottom half of the inning, Dominic Smadlino also went yard on a solo shot to get Blue right back into the game. 

Finally, Ryan Tayman sent a solo homer to left-center to lead off the second inning for gold.

Other highlights included the classics of Take Me Out the Ballgame led by Mixed Nuts players and God Bless America as a way to honor Veterans before the Veteran’s Day holiday. 

The Bears went 36-19 last season with a 17-13 record in the Pac-12. This next spring will be their first in the ACC which sent four teams to the College World Series last spring.  

This was also the final event at Borman for the Napa Valley Baseball Club for the calendar year.