By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com
All season long, Napa Valley College has been on the road, traveling to play each of its nonconference games, on account of heavy rains during the winter that led to unplayable conditions at its ball park, Storm Field. This continued for Napa Valley, with the Storm also playing its first four games of the Bay Valley Conference season away from home.
Everything changed on Wednesday, with Napa Valley finally returning to Storm Field, for its home opener.
It was Opening Day – sunny conditions with a light breeze and temperatures in the high 60s, players from Napa Valley and Yuba College-Marysville lining up on the first- and third-base lines for the national anthem, and Storm Field prepped and prepared and set up beautifully by NVC's facilities and grounds departments.
"It's probably in as good of shape as I've seen this field in a long, long time. It's a beautiful facility," NVC Athletic Director Jerry Dunlap said.
"We're excited. The kids are just in a different mood now. They've been on a little bit of a hot streak. The vibrancy around the team today, the smiles on their faces and the coaches overall – they're just ecstatic."
Getting out to an early lead by scoring its runs in bunches, and with Seth Vazquez pitching a complete game, Napa Valley rolled to its fifth straight win, trouncing Yuba, 18-2, in a game that was called in the seventh inning due to the conference's run rule.
It's a season-high run total in a game for the Storm.
First-year head coach Derek Mayer and assistant coach Robbie Wright were at Storm Field at 7:30 a.m., helping with field work.
"It feels good to finally have a seat at the table," said Mayer. "I'm confident in myself and my coaching staff and the program we put together. It's a learning process. But really, kind of the longer that we're here, the smoother it's going to be."
Napa Valley had it clicking – a combination of hitting, pitching, defense and base running.
The Storm had 15 hits, with six players producing multi-hit games.
"I think we're finally kind of hitting our stride. I think there's still a lot of obviously basics to kind of improve on," said Mayer. "We're just hoping to polish it up, as we continue to get a little deeper into the conference.
"I think actually being on the road for the entire (preseason) was maybe just the thing we needed. As unorthodox as it might be, I think it prepared us to be competitive on the road."
The Storm has also had very limited time for even practices at Storm Field. Players were able to get on Storm Field for their first practice on Feb. 29. When they can't use their ball park, they work out on an adjacent black-top facility.
"We're not going to make excuses for ourselves. Because at the end of the day, there's always someone that has it worse, right?" said Mayer.
After an 0-12 start to the season, the Storm is now in solo possession of first place in the Bay Valley. College of Marin-Kentfield and Solano Community College-Fairfield are tied for second place. Los Medanos College-Pittsburg and Laney College-Oakland are tied for fourth place.
"We take it one game at a time, because we know, just because of our preseason, how quickly things can change," said Mayer. "So, we're going to relish the opportunities to be at home and play good baseball. But we're going to remain humble and not overlook anybody."
The offense was led by Raisean Avila-Dorsey, who was 2-for-4 with a run, two doubles and five RBIs, and Forrest Kistner, who was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBIs.
There were others who joined the hit parade:
Peyton McGowen: 2-for-2, five runs scored, double, RBI.
Cole Van Stone: 2-for-4, double, three runs scored, two RBIs.
Jorge Lopez-Rios: 2-for-4, two RBIs.
William Tokar: 2-for-3, two runs.
Vincent Lencioni: 1-for-3, two runs, three RBIs.
Owen Nelson: 1-for-3, two runs, RBI.
Napa Valley (6-15 overall, 5-0 Bay Valley Conference) got it going early, as Avila-Dorsey had an RBI double in the first inning.
Kistner had a bases-loaded two-run single in the second inning.
Also in the second inning, Avila-Dorsey had a bases-loaded double, driving in three runs.
"It felt right at home, just good to settle back in," said Mayer.
NVC players were also out early, helping with the field preparations.
"I think getting them here and getting them more or less acclimated early, and then getting them back into the team room to hang out, kind of loosens them up a little bit," said Mayer.
It was Game 2 of the Bay Valley Conference series, and it was all Napa Valley, which has scored 69 runs in its last five games. For the season, the Storm has a .249 batting average, .377 on-base percentage, and .334 slugging percentage.
The Storm swept a three-game series from Contra Costa College-San Pablo to start the Bay Valley season last week. The Storm began its series with Yuba on Tuesday, winning, 13-11, in 10 innings in Marysville.
"It's been a while having the field ready to go," said Vazquez. "It makes me happy that I can pitch on a mound that I've been pitching on since last year. It just gets me so excited, that I can do what I've got to do as a job on the mound, to be a pitcher and to help my teammates get it going."
Vazquez allowed just five hits and two runs (one earned), walked three and struck out two while facing 31 batters, in seven innings. Yuba scored its two runs in the top of the seventh inning.
"That was by far his best outing of the season," said Mayer. "And it was matched with probably our best offense of the season, along with some of our best defense, too. We had a couple of mishaps but for the most part, we put all three aspects of the game together and that's the result we kind of expect when we're able to do that."
Vazquez was effective throwing a change-up and fastball. He threw 107 pitches.
"I'm having so much fun out here with the team," said Vazquez. "First home game. It feels good to take that win as a pitcher, as a family.
"It's the pitching, our fielding, our hitting. We love to have a good pace on pitching. And then we got the outs, we get our bang-bang going at the plate. Everybody gets their hits in. And that's what gets our runs. It's just everybody on the plate, just their mentality."
The third and final game of the series is Thursday, starting at 2:30 p.m., at Storm Field.
Dunlap and Mayer expressed their appreciation for the great work of the facilities and grounds departments as they worked – including mowing the field, draining water off the field, setting up the infield area – to get Storm Field in condition for the team's opener. The grounds staff is led by Scott Watts.
"Without their help, we would definitely not be playing here this week. Our grounds crew, we can't thank them enough," said Dunlap, NVC's Dean of Kinesiology, Health, Dance, Administration of Justice,
Social Sciences. "It's all hands-on deck. Without the support of our facilities department, we definitely would not be playing today or this week."
Said Mayer:
"They did a great job. They were out here for the past couple of days, putting in long hours. That is no easy task. So, the fact that it came together so quickly, I was very impressed. We really couldn't have done it without the facility guys."
* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.