Napa Valley College baseball loses fifth game in a row
By MARTY JAMES
Napa Valley College's baseball team lost its fifth game in a row on Tuesday, as Mendocino College scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 7-6 victory over the Storm in Ukiah.
It was the first game of a three-game Bay Valley Conference series between the two teams.
Napa Valley (7-22 overall, 6-7 Bay Valley) was ahead 3-0 in the second inning and 6-5 in the fifth inning.
Mendocino scored single runs in the eighth and ninth innings
The Storm had 10 hits, including doubles from Vincent Lencioni, Cole Van Stone and Forrest Kistner, and left nine runners on base.
Each team had one error.
Lencioni and Raisean Avila-Dorsey each had two hits to lead Napa Valley.
Lencioni was 2-for-5 and Avila-Dorsey was 2-for-4 and scored a run.
Jorge Lopez-Rios was 1-for-5 with one RBI, Peyton McGowen was 1-for-3 with a run scored, Van Stone was 1-for-5 with one RBI and a run scored, Bode Joyner was 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, Kistner was 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Christian Hernandez was 1-for-2.
Owen Nelson scored a run.
A double by Van Stone drove in a run, Kistner knocked in a run with a double, and Kistner scored on an outfield error in the second inning.
Lopez-Rios drove in a run with a single in the fourth inning.
Avila-Dorsey scored on a passed ball and Joyner plated a run on a groundout in the fifth inning.
The Storm is tied for fourth place in the conference standings.
Isaiah Franco started for the Storm and pitched 3 1/3 innings, facing 17 batters.
Kyle Worden took the loss after pitching 5 1/3 innings of relief and facing 25 batters. Worden gave up six hits, two runs (both earned), walked two and struck out three.
Nathan Looney had an RBI single in the eighth inning for Mendocino.
Ethan Maize had an RBI single in the ninth inning for Mendocino.
Game 2 of the series is on Thursday, April 11, at 2:30 p.m., at NVC's Storm Field.
* 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.