Napa Valley College baseball falls behind early, loses to Los Medanos
Photos by Marty James
By MARTY JAMES
The Napa Valley College baseball team fell behind early in its Bay Valley Conference game on Wednesday and lost to host Los Medanos College, 22-3, in Pittsburg.
Los Medanos went ahead 2-0 in the first inning and expanded on its lead, with a five-run second inning, a seven-run third inning, and a two-run fourth inning. Los Medanos was in front, 17-0, in the fifth inning.
The loss was the fourth in a row for Napa Valley (7-21 overall, 6-4 Bay Valley Conference).
Napa Valley was held to seven hits, left nine runners on base, and was charged with five errors.
The Storm struck out nine times.
Napa Valley scored its only runs of the game in the sixth inning.
It was the first game of a three-game Bay Valley series.
Myles Gray and Jaden Hunter had two-hit games for the Storm.
Gray was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
Hunter was 2-for-3 and drove in a run.
Connor Ray was 1-for-2 with a double.
Also, with hits were Owen Nelson, who was 1-for-3, and Shosei Tatsuno, who was 1-for-2.
Gilbert O'Connor drove in a run.
Carson Goss started and took the loss for the Storm.
Pitching in relief was Joel Gapusan, Sam Anderson, Emilio Diaz, Yugo Sakagawa and Alex Frank.
In the sixth inning for NVC, it was Wyatt Smith scoring when Gray reached base on an outfield error, Marcellus Cueva scoring when O'Connor had an RBI groundout, and Gray scoring on an RBI single to right field by Hunter.
Los Medanos' 20-hit attack was led by Chris Olsen with a home run and double, Antonio Moreira with a home run and double, and doubles from Smith Chandler, Charlie Malton, Trent Keys, Benjamin O'Rourke and Sean McGinty.
Olsen was 3-for-3 with four RBIs and O'Rourke was 3-for-3 with two RBIs.
Kai Smith, Corbett Freeman and Malton each had three RBIs.
Justin Jones pitched four shutout innings, allowing five hits and striking out three, to get the win for Los Medanos.
Five pitchers worked in relief for Los Medanos.
Napa Valley and Los Medanos will meet in Game 2 of the series on Friday at 2 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.