Napa Valley Baseball Club uses a huge first-inning rally to beat Community Projects of Napa Cubs in Bill Buckner Memorial 4th of July Tournament opener

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By Kyle Foster

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

Yountville-An inning can be all it takes to win a game. This can also make things a lot easier on the team that has a huge inning. 

On Thursday afternoon at Cleve Borman Field, this is what the Napa Valley Baseball Club 19-and-under team did as they beat Community Projects of Napa Cubs, 10-0, in a five-inning mercy rule-shortened contest in each team’s opener of the 48th annual Bill Buckner Memorial 4th of July tournament. 

NVBC (10-5) opened the game with a big inning, scoring 9 times in the first to take control. It all began when Parker Dahl walked, and Peter Hurd walked before being run for by Mason Rozalski. A single by Zee Raphael brought in Dahl and moved Rozalski to third. Wyatt Rohrs walked to load the baes for Grant Huss, who belted a double to right field to bring in Rozalski and Raphael. A wild pitch allowed Rohrs to score and moved Huss to third. Josh McCall walked, which was followed by a single by Connor Zuehlsdorff that brought in Huss. A double by Abe Schweiky brought in McCall and Zuehlsdorff. Then, a single by Hurd brought in Dahl, who was hit by a pitch in his second plate appearance of the inning, and Schweiky.  

This early run support made it easier for Napa Valley Baseball Club to settle in afterwards, too. 

“It’s always nice to score early, and kind of makes everybody relax a little bit,” Napa Valley Baseball Club 19U head coach John Hurd said. “We’ve had problems keeping focus when we do that, but we kept focus pretty well, and everybody played a great game today.”

In the fifth, Napa Valley Baseball Club scored once more when Tysin Costella walked and got to third on an error. He scored to end the game on a Schweiky single.   

Those leading the NVBC offense were Schweiky 2-for-3, double, run, 3 RBIs), Huss (2-for-3, stolen base, double, run, 2 RBIs), Hurd (1-for-2, walk, 2 RBIs), Raphael (1-for-3, run, RBI), Zuehlsdorff (1-for-3, RBI), Rohrs (1-for-3, run), and Dahl (1-for-1, stolen base, 2 walks, 2 runs).   

As for the Community Project of Napa Cubs (4-7), they had only a few chances to score in the game. They almost took control of the game early when a pitch hit Steven Petrini, and he stole second. He got to third on an error, but was stranded there. 

 “Petrini is the fastest catcher that I’ve seen,” Community Project of Napa Cubs head coach Bryan Richmond explained. “He is a very good base runner, and he brings a lot to the table as lead off hitter, kind of unconventional, usually your catcher, you think is a guy who maybe hit bottom of the order, he’s a great leadoff hitter for us, we need to do a better job being more disciplined at the plate early in the count, looking for fastball strikes and not chasing, but I thought he did a great job leading off for us today.”

The Cubs also played much better after the rough first inning. After all, it was a close game the rest of the way. 

“Our kids have come out; they’ve played a lot of games this summer, we’ve seen some very good teams that can swing the bat,” Richmond said. (Napa Valley) Baseball club is no exception; they’re a very well-coached team, and I thought we did do a great job.”  

However, they were held to just the one hit in the game. Getting that hit and going 1-for-2 in the contest was Jack Thomas. 

Getting the win on the mound for Napa Valley Baseball Club was Luke Becker at the young age of 14 in this 19U tournament. The young right-hander worked all 5 innings, where he struck out 11 and walked just 1. He also allowed 1 hit while throwing 84 pitches. 

“He’s special for his age. I mean, he pitched an unbelievably great game,” Hurd continued. “Super talented kid, little big for his age, and he’s got the velocity to match his size and pitch great.” 

Of his 84 pitches, 52 of them were strikes. This helped him stay on the mound for the whole game, saving arms in this tournament. 

“I think he just threw through a lot of strikes,” Hurd pointed out. “He had good command. I don’t know how many he walked. I don’t think it was very many, maybe a couple. But yeah, just throwing strikes, throwing hard, and got the job done.” 

Both teams will continue play tomorrow. However, the pool is under different circumstances because Daily City dropped on Monday. Willits will take their spot on Friday and Saturday, but are ineligible to play Sunday. 

So the winner of tomorrow’s Headfirst-Bercovich against Napa Cubs game at 2 pm will play on Sunday. Meanwhile, NVBC has locked into Sunday with the win and will just have to beat Headfirst-Berkovich on Saturday at 4:30 to win the pool. They will face Willits tomorrow at 4:30 pm. 

Other finals from the day were San Bruno VFW beating Orland Outlaws 7-3, and California Rays beating St. Helena Red Devils 15-1. 

Games continue all day tomorrow, with the opening game starting at 9 am. The speed limit on the Veterans Home property is 15 MPH. Admission is $7 to get in, and a tournament pass is available for $20.