Four-run seventh inning the difference, as Napa Valley baseball wins, 4-2
Napa Valley College is shown in an earlier-season baseball game at Storm Field.
Photos by Marty James
By MARTY JAMES
Napa Valley College's baseball team began a three-game Bay Valley Conference series against College of Marin in Kentfield on Wednesday, April 22.
The Storm was the home team for Game 1.
A four-run seventh inning was the difference, as Napa Valley went on to a 4-2 win over Marin.
Marin scored two runs in the eighth inning.
Ian Ross (4-5) started and got the win for the Storm. Ross pitched 7 2/3 innings, facing 30 batters, giving up five hits and two runs (both earned), walking five and striking out three. Ross threw 128 pitches (76 strikes).
Pitching in relief was Seth England and Dylan Brown.
England went one-third of an inning, walked one and struck out one while facing two batters and throwing 14 pitches (seven strikes).
Brown earned the save, pitching one inning and hitting one batter while throwing nine pitches (seven strikes) and facing four batters. It was Brown's third save of the season.
The win was the second straight for Napa Valley (13-24 overall, 9-10 Bay Valley Conference).
The Storm had eight hits and left nine runners on base.
Ethan Boatman led the Storm, going 3-for-4 and scoring a run.
Other hits came from:
Dylan Brown, 1-for-3; Ryan Rice, 1-for-2, RBI; Nico Velasquez, 1-for-3, run scored; Ben Menard, 1-for-3, run scored; Ty Francis, 1-for-3, two RBIs.
In the bottom of the seventh inning for NVC, Boatman singled and scored on Rice's RBI single.
A two-run single by Francis scored Velasquez, who reached on a walk, and Myles Gray, who reached on a fielder's choice.
Menard was hit by a pitch and scored on an error.
Game 2 of the series is Thursday, April 23 at Marin starting at 2 p.m.
The third and final game of the series, on Friday, April 24, has been moved to College of Marin, with a 1 p.m. start. Napa Valley is the home team.
* 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.