By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com

Napa Valley College's baseball team was held to six hits and was shut out on Thursday, as the Storm fell on the road to Laney College, 5-0, in the second game of a Bay Valley Conference series in Oakland.

In dropping its second game in a row, the Storm (9-24 overall, 8-9 Bay Valley Conference) also committed three errors.

Laney College opened the scoring with a run in the second inning, and followed with a three-run fifth inning and another run in the sixth inning.

Six players each had one hit for the Storm, which also left six runners on base.

Owen Nelson was 1-for-4, Vincent Lencioni was 1-for-4, Raisean Avila-Dorsey was 1-for-4 with a double, Cole Van Stone was 1-for-4, Jorge Lopez-Rios was 1-for-4 with a double, and Amari Sawhney was 1-for-3.

Seth Vazquez started and took the loss for Napa Valley. Vazquez pitched seven innings, facing 33 batters, allowing 10 hits and five runs (two earned), walked just one and struck out three batters.

Kyle Worden pitched in relief, going one inning and allowing one hit, walking one and striking out one, while facing five batters.

Brandon Vargas had an RBI single in the second inning, accounting for Laney College's first run of the game.

Ben Saitz had a sacrifice-fly RBI to center field in the fifth inning.

Laney College scored its next two runs in the fifth inning on Napa Valley errors, both in the infield.

Laney College scored its final run of the game in the sixth inning as Casey Leavitt-McGee had an RBI single.

Nehemiah House started and got the win for Laney College. House pitched seven shutout innings, allowing five hits and striking out two, while facing 26 batters.

Chris Rocha worked the last two innings, allowing one hit and striking out two, while facing seven batters.

Laney College and Napa Valley meet on Friday in the third and final game of the series at NVC's Storm Field starting at 1 p.m.

Napa Valley is in fourth place in the conference standings.

Napa Valley, meanwhile, will conclude its 2024 spring season next week with a three-game Bay Valley Conference series against Solano Community College-Fairfield.

* 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.