Local Report: Little League title games on tap

Del Sur Mortgage, the Napa National Little League baseball champion in the Minor A Division, will take an 18-0 record into Saturday’s city championship game against Napa American champion Carl’s Auto Body (9-7-2) at Garfield Park’s Volunteer Field.

Other city title matchups set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Garfield Park will be Rasmusen Painting against Fire in the Major Division on Baumgartner Field, and Ranch Markets against Snap-On Tools in the Minor B Division on Cardwell Field.

Rasmusen Painting’s players are Cole Capitani, Ethan Castelazo, Carson Hall, Christoph Horton, Cameron Jordan, Jaxon Oden, Eleazid Rojas, Robert Ruiz, Connor Smith, Jacob Umali, Austin Whitehead and Elliott Zuidema. The manager is Billy Smith and the coaches are Jason Hall, Billy Whitehead and Mark Castelazo.

Fire’s players are Jacob DeGraw, Carter Haven, Kiamo Huerta, Jesse Hunt, Nathan Materne, Mason Medina, Justice Penterman, Justin Ray, John Ruiz Jr., Harley Sanders, Vincent Santiago and Dylan Snider. The manager is Jacob Ray and the coaches are Dale Snider, William Santiago and Brian Penterman.

Del Sur Mortgage’s players are Dominic Goss, Charlie Keller, Jaden Washington, J.D. Lopez, Bruno Freschi, Brandon Guiducci, Finn Salese, Jacob Rosentiel, Henry La Liberte, Dario Freschi, Jose Soriano and Mason Chavoen. The manager is Bob Freschi and the coaches are Chris Salese, Josh Goss and Jim Keller.

Carl’s Auto Body’s players are Aiden Erickson, Connor Gongora, Bailey Huss, Andrew Jobe, Liam Joy, James Niedhoefer, Jake Newman, Jeffrey Page Jr., Logan Rogers, Jay Ruiz, Charlie Vaziri and Joseph Willis. The manager is Ben Gongora and the coaches are Kory Erickson and Jeff Page.

Snap On Tools’ players are Hunter Horvath, Bo Lode, Francisco Mares, Angel Moreno, Jake Perez, Blake Porter, Braden Schuh, Jack Thomas, Julio Vega, Jacob Weaver, Hunter Weis and Kayen West. The manager is Steve Porter and the coaches are Dale Pinkney and Kelly Lode.

Ranch Markets’ players are Joy Bradbury, David Cruz Jr., Hayden Due, Eli Ewig, Alessio Fantucci, Cameron Gerien, Brett Holman, Nathan Jewell, Jack Keller, Griffin Messenger, Chase Padowan, Alex Stevens and Niko Tavakoli. The manager is Chris Padowan and the coaches are Bill Bradbury, J Scott Gerien, Kian Tavakoli and Chris Holman.

Playing consolation games at 10 a.m. will be Police against Reliable Refrigeration in the Major Division, Wyman Property Management against Dub’s Sports in the Minor A Division, and Shanahan Construction against Fazerrati’s Pizza in the Minor B Division.

Police’s players are Lucas Brandon, Chase Briskovich, Jack Davidson, Dylan Karis, Carson McCaffrey, Samuel Neal, Nathaniel, Perry, Noah Piersig, AJ Schreiner, Christian Smith, Dylan Tate and Cameron Taylor. The manager is Cam Neal and the coach is Rob Brandon.

Reliable Refrigeration’s players are Louie Canepa, Peyten Czekalewski, Charlie Feaver, Thomas Foster, Samiel Gomez, Zach Guck, eric Gutierrez, Calvin Johnson, Spencer Marks, Kaleb Matulich, Nathan Schwarze and Jack Sheehan. The manager is Spencer Czekalewski and the coaches are Garrett Roualdes, Dan Schwarze and Raymond Guck.

Wyman’s players are Reese de Lorimier, Owen Hardwick, Riley Love, Rowan Love, Mason Meyer, Gus Mundy, Zack Simi, Samuel Smith, Collin Taylor, Ty Tharp, Charlie Wenzel and Grayson Wyman. The manager is Brian Mundy and the coaches are Alex Simi, Todd Wenzel and Michael Smith.

Dub’s Sports’ players are Tyler Bradford, John Bullock, David Capra, Dylan Chatham, Carson Degarmo, Grayson Frye, Trace Madigan, Zachary Murrell, Ted Simpkins, Kane Williams, Jaden Wright and Nolan Wright. The manager is Joe Madigan and the coaches are Jeremy Bullock, Eric Bradford, Josh Degarmo, Jason Chatham and Kyle Ferreira.

Shanahan’s players are Beatrice Balbuena, Brody Bloomer, Theo Engering-Ward, Sahan Khaira, Ari Massey, Josh McCall, Gabriel Reyes, Finnegan Shanahan, Jack Shea, Stevano Snider and Alexander Winske. The manager is Conor Massey and the coaches are Gabe Reyes and Alex Winske.

The Fazerrati’s players are Hudson Anderson, Ryder Cantrell, Sawyer Carmichael, Charlie Crump, Andrew Douglas, Hunter Griffin, Everett Kincaid, Mac Leamer, Nathan Oliver, Mason Rozalski, Lucas van de Pol and Jordan Washington. The manager is Albert Washington and the coaches are Tyler Anderson, Steve Crump, Tom Oliver and Richard Rozalski.

Pause

Current Time0:00

/

Duration Time0:00

Loaded: 0%

Progress: 0%

0:00

Fullscreen

00:00

Mute

Napa Valley Baseball Club

The Napa 19’s went 3-1 in the recent Memorial Weekend Tournament at Woodland High.

On May 28, Napa opened with a 10-5 win over West Sacramento.

Going 3 for 4 to lead the team at the plate were leadoff hitter Jaksen Wilson, who also walked and scored twice, and No. 9 hitter Felipe Gonzalez. Ross Henderson was 2 for 2 with a double, three runs and two walks, and Tyler Rustice went 2 for 3 with a walk and run.

Also with hits were Juan Carlos Lopez-Rios (1 for 5, run), Jason Brandow (1 for 3, double, two runs, walk), Luke Lipanovich (1 for 3, hit by pitch, run) and Jacob Ray (1 for 3, walk).

Daniel Gonzalez pitched first two innings, allowing three runs on five hits, a walk and a strikeout. Nick Akey pitched the next four, yielding one run on a hit, walk and strikeout, and Felipe Gonzalez pitched the last inning, giving up one run and two hits, and hitting a batter and striking out two.

In the first of two games on May 29, Napa scored three runs in the second to take the lead for good in a six-inning 8-2 win over Haggin-Grant of Sacramento. Rustice and Lipanovich combined to strike out eight and allow only two baserunners in five shutout relief innings.

Ray was 4 for 4 with three RBIs and three runs, Nick Akey 3 for 3 with two RBIs, a sacrifice fly and two runs, and Jake Rasmusen 3 for 4 with an RBI, run and stolen base to lead the way. Wilson was 2 for 4 with a run, walk and stolen base, and Justin Harp went 2 for 2 with a run. Also hitting were Lopez-Rios (1 for 4, run), Henderson (1 for 2, walk), Lipanovich (1 for 3, walk, two stolen bases) and Rustice (1 for 1, walk).

That afternoon, Napa fell 8-3 to an experienced Merced squad. Rustice (1 for 3, two RBIs, run) hit a two-run homer in in the sixth to pull Napa within 4-3, but Merced answered with four runs in the seventh on a triple, double, single and two walks.

Also with hits were Lopez-Rios (2 for 3, run), Max Phipps (1 for 2, walk, run), Wilson (1 for 4, RBI), Brandow (1 for 3), Akey (1 for 3) and Harp (1 for 2, walk).

Napa finished strong with an 11-5 rout of Yuba City on May 31, breaking open a 5-4 game with six runs in the sixth.

Lipanovich was 2 for 3 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run, Ray went 2 for 4 with an RBI double, RBI single and two runs, and Rustice was 2 for 4 with a run and a two-run single in the sixth. Other hits came from Joe Canepa (1 for 2, RBI single, two runs), Wilson (1 for 5, RBI single, run), Rasmusen (1 for 4, run), Lopez-Rios (1 for 3, RBI sacrifice fly, run) and Henderson (1 for 4, RBI double, run).

Felipe Gonzalez pitched first three innings, allowing three runs on five hits, a walk and six strikeouts. Rustice pitched last four, yielding one run on five hits, two walks and four strikeouts.

Raiders beat WMU in NCAA Regionals on Saturday

The Wright State baseball team tied the school single-season record for wins Saturday afternoon, scoring in six of nine innings to defeat Western Michigan 10-3 in a NCAA Regional elimination game at Jim Patterson Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Raiders jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first.  Matt Morrow started the game with a hit to right and Peyton Burdick drew a one-out walk.  One out later, Sean Murphy walked to load the bases and Gabe Snyder followed with a single deep behind the bag at second to drive in Morrow and Burdick.

WMU, though, answered with two of its own in the bottom of the first and it stayed that way until WSU took the lead for good with a run in the third as Burdick walked and Ryan Fucci plated him with a double down the left field line.

Wright State extended the lead to 5-2 with two more in the fourth.  After a John Brodner walk, a Zach Weatherford bunt hit and Morrow moving both runners into scoring position with another bunt, Mitch Roman delivered a two-run double to right center.

JD Orr made it 7-2 with a two-run single in the fifth and the margin grew to 9-2 an inning later as Burdick singled in Morrow and later scored on a Murphy triple to right center.

The Raiders rounded out their scoring in the seventh on an Orr double followed by a Brodner hit to right.

Robby Sexton (7-3) was in control after allowing the two runs in the first, giving up just a run on three hits and a walk over his final 5.2 innings of work, retiring 15 straight batters in one stretch.  Logan Blair closed out the game with 2.1 shutout innings.

With the victory, Wright State (45-16) tied the 1989 squad, which finished 45-12 in the program’s second season in Division I, for the most single-season wins in school history.

Offensively, Morrow, Roman, Fucci, Murphy, Orr and Brodner each had two hits with Burdick scoring three times and Morrow twice.  Roman, Snyder and Orr each drove in two.

Wright State will face Ohio State in another elimination contest on Sunday at noon.  Should the Raiders win that one, they would face Louisville later Sunday at 4:00.

Wichita State’s Grady offers different low-post dynamic

After reaching the Sweet 16 last season Wichita State had two important departures to account for. Not only did the Shockers lose one of the nation’s top “glue guys” in Tekele Cotton, but their best interior scorer in Darius Carter exhausted his eligibility as well. Carter averaged 11.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, shooting better than 52 percent from the field, making head coach Gregg Marshall’s search for a replacement an important subplot this spring.

Ultimately the Shockers managed to land a productive interior scorer in grad student Anton Grady, who averaged 14.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per contest as a redshirt junior at Cleveland State. In regards to both numbers and skill set, Grady is more than capable of being the front court supplement that players such as Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet need.

But Marshall was quick to point out to Bob Lutz of the Wichita Eagle that his newest big man has a style of play that differs from what Carter brought to the table in 2014-15.

“When Ron and Fred decided they were coming back for their senior years, we knew we had that one scholarship available,” Marshall said. “I determined to try and do the best I could to give those guys an opportunity to go out with a crescendo, as high a note as they could possibly go out on. So we were thrilled to get Anton rather than a transfer who had to sit out or a freshman probably not ready to be a prime-time player.”

Marshall believes Grady is ready to be that.

“He’s not a Darius Carter-type, he’s different,” Marshall said. “He’s not as long. This kid has had [three] knee surgeries, so he plays more of an old-man game. But he uses his body well. He gets angles and he can use either hand.”

Grady’s had to endure a total of three surgeries to repair the meniscus in each knee (two on the left and one on the right), which has forced him to make adjustments to his game. As Marshall noted in the quote above Grady has more of an “old man game,” which won’t be an issue given Wichita State’s other front court options as well as the presence of two of the nation’s best guards in Baker and VanVleet (Kansas transfer Conner Frankamp will be eligible in December).

Whether it’s through elite athleticism or a craftier approach, Wichita State simply needs Grady to be a dependable scoring option in the post area. And despite having to deal with knee issues throughout his college career, Grady’s proven that he can be productive.