BRENTWOOD, CA - After falling to Pittsburg on Tuesday afternoon, the Heritage baseball team knew it had its backs against the wall heading into Thursday’s game against rival Liberty. The Patriots, however, responded with one of their top performances of the year to down the Lions, 8-2, and regain control of their own destiny in the race for the Bay Valley Athletic League title.
Heritage had fallen a game behind Liberty in the league standings with Tuesday’s loss, and was tied for second with Freedom. The Patriots, though, forged a 3-0 lead after four innings and then blew the game open with a five-run sixth inning, cruising to the win at home and sweeping the season series against Liberty.
While starting pitcher Bryson Kinnick was keeping Liberty off the scoreboard, the Heritage offense chipped away at Lions’ pitcher Justin Prince, until the sixth inning, Tyler Winters replaced Prince on the mound. Winters got the first out of the inning, but Aidan Quinn got things started with a double for the Patirots. Ryan Jackson reached on an error, and Chaz Myers followed with a two-strike single to score Quinn, while a throwing error allowed Jackson to come all the way from first and score for a 5-0 lead.
Myers was caught stealing third for the second out of the inning, but back-to-back batters were hit by pitches, and Keith Jones then turned on a 2-0 fastball for a three-run homer and an insurmountable 8-0 advantage for the Patriots.
“I was just looking for a fastball on the inside half, especially because I had seen fastballs early in the game,” Jones said. “I saw more off-speed pitches and stuff on the outside after I hit my double, but I felt they were going to try and challenge me in that situation. Once I hit it, I knew it was gone.”
The three-run blast by Jones provided some breathing room, and allowed Heritage coach Kevin Brannan to go to his bullpen in the top of the seventh after Kinnick issued a one-out walk. The move to lift Kinnick was not immediately successful, as Riley Bosler drilled a two-run homer for the Lions and the next two batters walked, but Jackson then took the mound, and after loading the bases with another walk, he retired the next two batters to end the game and put the Patriots once again on the top of the league standings.
“Getting a win was big, and we knew coming in that we needed to wake up our bats, because our performance against Pittsburg was not acceptable,” added Quinn, who scored twice in the victory. “Bryson threw a gem, and when we have our bats going, we’re hard to beat.”
Kinnick finished the game having gone six and one-third innings, allowing four hits while striking out a pair. Prince allowed just three hits in five innings for Liberty, but four walks and three errors defensively proved to be damaging.
Aside from Heritage’s win over Liberty, Freedom also fell in an upset to Deer Valley, 3-2, as Justin Tamelier was brilliant on the mound for the Wolverines, who overcame an early 2-0 deficit to knock the Falcons into third place. Freedom and Liberty play next week, in a game that could have potential title ramifications.
Alameda wraps up WACC-Foothill crown
Alameda clinched the outright regular season title for the WACC-Foothill Division on Thursday, as the Hornets defeated Arroyo, 2-0.
Bryan Woo struck out eight and allowed just two hits as Alameda finished the league season with a 14-1-1 mark. Ryan Wong drove in both runs for the Hornets.
Alameda hosts Castro Valley in the first round of the league tournament.
Northgate grabs control in DAL-Foothill
Kevin Clancy doubled twice and drove in a pair of runs, as Northgate used a four-run sixth inning to take down College Park, 5-3, and assume a one-game lead in the DAL-Foothill standings.
Jared Hedrick drove in a pair of runs for College Park, which took a 3-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning, but the Broncos rallied for the big win in a match-up of league leaders. Clancy, Danny Shaffer, and Luke Saunders each had two hits for Northgate.
Newman spoils Carrillo’s bid for NBL title
Maria Carrillo entered Saturday needing a win against Cardinal Newman to share the North Bay League regular season title with Casa Grande, heading into next week’s league tournament. What the Pumas got instead was a 17-2 shellacking at the hands of the Cardinals, and a second-place finish in the league standings.
Carrillo ace Cade Sheets was tagged for seven runs in the first inning, including a bases-clearing triple from Ryan Miller which punctuated the first-inning outburst. When Jason Moran homered to lead off the bottom of the second inning, it was clear that this day belonged to Cardinal Newman. Moran finished the game with five runs batted in, including a two-run double in the third inning.
Miller finished the game with three hits and four RBI for the Cardinals, who got four inning of two-hit ball on the mound from junior pitcher Sean Flowers. Senior Dante Cavallo finished the game with three hitless innings, striking out three.
Casa Grande evens score with Petaluma
Having dropped an early non-league game to the Trojans, Casa Grande left nothing to chance in a 20-7 win on Saturday. The Gauchos scored six runs in the first inning and seven more in the fourth inning to cruise to the win.
Justin Millard tripled and drove in four runs during the win, while Aaron Van Tighem and Dylan Moore had three RBI each. Nick Andrakin had a big day at the plate for Petaluma, with two doubles and four RBI.