By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com
Owen Nelson hit a home run and was among four players for the Napa Valley College baseball team with two hits each, but the Storm lost on Tuesday to host Solano Community College, 10-7, in 10 innings in Fairfield.
Napa Valley (9-26 overall, 8-11 Bay Valley Conference), which has now lost four in a row, tied the game in the seventh inning, 6-6, on Nelson's two-run home run.
The Storm went ahead in the eighth inning, 7-6.
Solano (24-13 overall, 14-5 Bay Valley Conference) tied it in the bottom of the ninth inning, scoring a run and making it a 7-7 game.
Solano won it in the 10th inning on a walk-off three-run home run by Connor Ross.
It was the first game of a three-game season-ending Bay Valley series.
Napa Valley had a productive day at the plate, getting 10 hits, including three for extra bases.
The Storm, which is in fifth place in the conference standings, also came back from 4-0, 5-0 and 6-0 deficits.
Leading the way for NVC was Nelson, who was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Cole Van Stone was 2-for-5 with a double and run scored.
Jorge Lopez-Rios was 2-for-5 with a double, run scored and RBI.
Raisean Avila-Dorsey was 2-for-5 and scored a run.
With one hit each was William Tokar, who was 1-for-4 with two RBIs, and Amari Sawhney, who was 1-for-4.
Napa Valley struck out 12 times, left six runners on base, and was charged with four errors.
Peyton McGowen scored a run
Forrest Kistner had an RBI and scored a run.
Kistner and Sawhney each had a stolen base.
Napa Valley battled back in the game, scoring four runs in the sixth inning, two runs in the seventh inning, and one in the eighth inning. Isaiah Franco made the start and pitched eight innings for the Storm, facing 37 batters and giving up 11 hits, six runs (all earned), striking out two and hitting two batters.
Jameson Hogarth took the loss, going 1 2/3 innings and facing 11 batters, giving up three hits and four runs (all earned), walking two, striking out one and hitting one batter.
Napa Valley's sixth inning was led by Lopez-Rios' RBI double, Kistner's bases-loaded RBI walk, and Tokar's two-run single.
For Solano, Jake Rogers was 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs, JJ Dain was 3-for-6, Kevin Parker was 2-for-5 with a double, and Miles Meadows was 2-for-5 with one RBI.
Meadows had an RBI single in the ninth inning. Solano left nine runners on base. Game 2 of the series is Thursday at Napa Valley's Storm Field at 2:30 p.m. It's also the final home game of the 2024 spring season for the Storm.
The third and final game of the series is on Friday at Solano starting at 1 p.m.
* 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.