Napa rallies from early deficits to come back late and beat Vallejo in home opener, stay unbeaten to start season

By Kyle Foster

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

It’s always nice when a team can come back when facing adversity because not every game is going to start as planned. 

On Monday afternoon at Mount Field, this is what Napa High did as they beat Vallejo, 12-5, in their home opener. 

The Grizzlies (2-0) took their first lead in the fourth when they scored four times. It all began when Gabe Reyes walked and then advanced to second and third on wild pitches. Mason Bartlett also walked and got to second on a wild pitch. This set up runners at second and third for Drew Herbert who sent a double down the left-field line to give Napa a 7-5 lead. Herbert later scored on a wild pitch to extend the lead. The final run of the frame came when Collin Taylor walked and stole second before getting to third on a wild pitch. He came in when Camden Aaen reached on an error. 

Napa scored a run in the fifth to add on late. Reyes walked and got to second on a single by Cillian Shannon. A Herbert single put runners on the corners before a wild pitch brought in Reyes. 

In their final at-bats, the Grizzlies scored two more times to make it a comfortable margin of victory. Niko Titolo and Mason Rozalski both walked and moved into scoring position on a pair of wild pitches. A Shannon double down the right field line brought in Titolo and Rozalski. 

Before the game was decided, Napa had to overcome a few early deficits. They did this by scoring a pair of runs in the first inning to get the offense going. Shannon began the inning by doubling to center field and then scoring when Drew Herbert yanked a triple to right field. He also scored on a wild pitch in that inning. 

Then in the second, they scored three times to knot things up at 5. Titolo singled and got to second on a wild pitch before getting to third on a Rozalski single to put runners at the corners. A sacrifice bunt by Reyes brought in Titolo. Rozalski swiped third and then later scored on a wild pitch. 

“There were two good things that happened,” Napa head coach and manager Jason Chatham explained. “One is that we learned that we have to prepare in pre-game a little better. We have to be a little more locked in. These guys are young and a little inexperienced, and I think that was a good lesson. The second thing we learned is, learned is that when we are down, we can come back. We do have a little bit of firepower this year, and I think that being able to answer those five runs with five of our own and balance that game out and say, ‘Okay, look, we did hand away a bunch of runs there early on, but we do have the resiliency, and we do have the firepower to come back’, and doing that, I thought showed our guys that we are capable of putting out numbers.”

Leading Napa at the plate in the game was Herbert who finished the day going 3-for-4 with a triple, double, a pair of stolen bases, 2 runs scored, and 3 RBIs. This is something that should be expected as he is in the third spot in the lineup this year.

“We talk about people that can stabilize the ship. Drew Herbert is the kind that can stabilize the ship,” Chatham emphasized. “He does a lot behind the plate. He does a lot at the dish.  When he’s hitting, our team just focuses on Drew. Does not talk much. But when he says something, it matters. He’s a very good baseball player. We think that he’s turned the corner from last year to this year and become exceptional.” 

Others helping lead the offensive attack in the game were Shannon (3-for-5 run, 2 doubles, 2 RBIs), Titolo (1-for-2 walk, 2 runs), Rozalksi (1-for-2 run), and Bartlett  (1-for-4 double, walk, RBI, stolen base, 2 runs). 

Vallejo (1-2) began the game by taking advantage of five errors and scoring five runs over the first two innings, giving them leads of 3-0 and 5-2 early on. 

“We were just talking about this down the line. We didn’t like the way that we started off with stretching and our catch play, it was sloppy,” Chatham said of the sloppy start to the game. “We talked about it. It was still sloppy. And then our infield, outfield was sloppy and then it carried right on over into the game.”  

Jake Newman got the win on the bump for the Grizzlies. The senior righty pitched four innings of relief, striking out eight and allowing just a single hit. He came in and steadied the game with his command on the mound. 

“This was the best performance I’ve seen from Jake Newman, let alone almost any of our pitchers here in the last couple (of) years,” Chatham explained. “I mean, that was absolutely fantastic. Jake hit his spots, and he mixed pitches. He was able to climb the zone, hit the corners. He was very much in control of the game, and we needed him to be because those first couple innings, there’s a lot of unevenness in those first couple innings. We needed somebody to come in and just sort of settle down our defense.” 

Newman was able to do this thanks to adding a new pitch to his arsenal with the split-finger fastball. 

“Over this entire fall ball,  I’ve been working with our pitching coach, Jayge Campbell, and I just worked in the split-finger with him and my brother (Dylan),” Newman said of what led to his solid outing. “Just getting input from both people,  I was able to tweak my grip just a little bit to a really weird grip. But I’ve just been getting a lot of results out of it. That’s pretty much all I threw today.”  

Napa will be back in action on Thursday at 3:30 pm in Chico in the opener of the Pleasant Valley Spring Classic. They will also face Golden Valley-Merced on Friday at 10:30 AM and then face host Pleasant Valley at 1 pm on Friday before ending the tournament on Saturday.