Home run by Lencioni leads NVC baseball to second straight win, 17-7 over Mendocino College
By MARTY JAMES
Napa Valley College unleashed an explosive hitting attack in its Bay Valley Conference baseball game in Ukiah on Friday, April 12.
The Storm had 19 hits – five of which went for extra bases – and scored its runs in bunches in a 17-7 win over Mendocino College.
Seven players had multiple-hit games, powering an offense that was led by Vincent Lencioni, who hit a home run, and Forrest Kistner, who doubled and tripled.
The Storm opened the game by scoring two runs in the first inning, adding three runs in the fifth inning, two more runs in the sixth inning, one in the seventh inning, and finishing it out with a five-run eighth inning, followed by a four-run ninth inning.
It was the second win in a row for Napa Valley (9-22 overall, 8-7 Bay Valley Conference), which won the three-game series from Mendocino, two games to one.
Napa Valley, which is in fourth place in the conference standings, also got a solid outing from starting pitcher Jorge Lopez-Rios. In picking up the win, Lopez-Rios went seven innings, facing 32 batters, and gave up seven hits, four runs (three earned), walked three, struck out five, and hit one batter.
Nigel Clay and Jameson Hogarth pitched in relief, each going one inning.
Napa Valley overcame three errors. The Storm left nine runners on the base.
The Storm got three hits from Raisean Avila-Dorsey, Cole Van Stone and William Tokar.
The Storm also got two hits from Lencioni, Owen Nelson, Kistner and Christian Hernandez.
Nine players had at least one hit.
Avila-Dorsey was 3-for-6 with three runs scored and one RBI.
Van Stone was 3-for-6 with a double, two runs scored and five RBIs.
Tokar was 3-for-4 with a double, run scored and RBI.
Lencioni was 2-for-6 with a home run, three runs scored and three RBIs.
Nelson was 2-for-4, scored two runs and had one RBI.
Kistner was 2-for-6 with a double and RBI.
Hernandez was 2-for-4, scored three runs and had one RBI.
With one hit each was Peyton McGowen (1-for-5, two runs scored) and Amari Sawhney (1-for-6, run scored).
Sawhney had two stolen bases. Avila-Dorsey and Van Stone each had a stolen base.
NVC got its scoring going in the first inning. The Storm scored its first run of the game on an infield error. Avila-Dorsey then got a run home on an RBI groundout.
NVC's fifth inning was highlighted by Nelson's RBI single and Van Stone's two-run single.
In the sixth inning, it was Hernandez with an RBI single.
The Storm scored on an infield error in the seventh inning.
Lencioni led the charge in the eighth inning, with a two-run home run. Van Stone had a two-run single and Tokar drove in a run with a single.
In Napa Valley's ninth inning, it was the Storm scoring on an infield error, Lencioni driving in a run with a single, and Kistner driving in a run with a triple.
Napa Valley and Laney College-Oakland begin a three-game Bay Valley Conference series on Tuesday, April 16 at Storm Field starting at 2:30 p.m.
The Storm is averaging 5.9 runs per game. As a team, NVC has a .258 batting average, .376 on-base percentage, and .349 slugging percentage.
* 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.