Leghorns batter Area foes

It was hot in Fairfield last week, as in triple-digit hot, but the temperature at Laurel Creek Park couldn’t hold a thermometer to the blistering Petaluma Leghorn bats.

In belting their way to the Area Tournament championship for the second straight year, the Leghorn Senior American Legion team scored 75 runs in five games, ending three of their five straight victories by the 10-run rule in seven innings.

In their most important game of the tournament and, perhaps, their most important game of the season to date, the Leghorns clinched a trip to the State Tournament by walloping the Humboldt Eagles, 28-11. They cracked 21 hits in that seven-inning mind-boggler.

Now, it is back to State for the Leghorns, who were scheduled to open Wednesday with an afternoon game against a team from Southern California at the Veterans Home in Yountville. Game results were not available at press time.

By game, here is how the Leghorns reached state:

Leghorns 12, Yolo 1

Eric Parnow gave the Leghorns their best pitching performance of the tournament in the opener, going five strong innings in a game that was shortened to seven by the 10-run rule.

Leghorns 15, Redding 4

Connor Littleton pitched five good innings in the Leghorns’s second game, and was backed by some outstanding defense.

Shortstop Tyler Moore and second baseman Blake Patrick combined for a bang-bang double play to cut short a potential Redding rally in the first inning. Third baseman CJ Vitale started an around-the-horn twin kill to end a Fairfield rally in the sixth inning and both left fielder Vinnie Albano and right fielder Ryan Walsh made outstanding grabs in the outfield to keep the Tigers at bay.

Inexplicably, the Leghorn defense faltered in the sixth inning when the Petalumans made four errors to allow Redding to score three runs.

However, by then Petaluma was already sitting on an 11-run lead, and only needed two runs in the seventh to shorten the game.

The Leghorns rallied for eight runs in the fourth inning on six hits and three walks to put the game out of reach.

Former Petaluma High School players Bubba Thomason and Blake Patrick each had two hits in the game and drove in three runs apiece. Former St. Vincent player Dusty Oliver, who played last spring for San Marin High School in Novato, also had two hits, including a soaring double that crashed off the left-center field fence, some 390 feet from home plate. Albano, a former Sonoma Valley player, had three hits and drove home two runs.

Leghorns 28, Humboldt 11

The game that really counted for the Leghorns was played Friday night in a pleasant coolness following the blistering heat of their first two games.

After a computer had totaled everything, the Leghorns had the 28-11 victory and a ticket to Yountville. The Petalumans might have had even more, but somewhere along the line they missed a field goal.

The tone for the three-plus hour game was set early when the Leghorns sent 15 batters to the plate in the first inning and scored 11 runs. Patience was the name of the game for the Leghorns who made starting Humboldt pitcher Colby Benz and a succession of relievers throw strikes,and when the pitches attempt to cross the plate, they were quickly intercepted by the practiced application of wooden bats.

In addition to their 21 hits, the Leghorns accepted 11 walks and had four batters hit by pitches.

Continuing their outstanding glove work of the previous two games, the Leghorns made some critical defensive plays behind starting pitcher Dominic Garihan and successor Mac McLean.

As ironic as it sounds, it was a defensive play that kept Humboldt out of the game even though the Eagles trailed by 11 runs before they were ever granted the privilege of batting.

Fairfield, an excellent hitting team, put its first two swingers on base with solid singles before Riley Jackson shot a rocket toward left field. Leghorn third baseman CJ Vitale went straight up with a vertical jump that would have made Spider Man proud to snag the ball and quickly shot a throw to second for a double play, and the Humboldt chances for victory were pretty much done for the night.

Not the action, however.

The Leghorns followed up the 11-run first with four runs in the second, six in the third, and one in the fourth before finishing off their offensive evening with their best hitting round in the seventh, scoring six runs on hits by Patrick, Albano, Moore, Charlie Parnow, Thomason and a sacrifice fly by Vitale.

From top to bottom in the Leghorn batting order:

Eric Parnow had five hits, scored four runs and drove home two; Charlie Parnow walked three times, had two hits, was hit by the pitcher, scored four runs and drove in three; Walsh had three hits and a sacrifice fly, scored four runs and drove in five; Thomason had three hits, walked twice, scored three runs, drove in four and hit a monster shot over the 341-foot sign in left field that was foul by only a couple of feet; Vitale had three hits and a sacrifice fly, driving in five runs; Patrick was on base three times and scored three runs. Albano reached base three times and scored three runs; Meyn singled, doubled and was hit by a pitch three times; Moore was on base twice, scored two runs and knocked in three.

Despite the avalanche of Leghorn runs, Humboldt kept swinging right to the end of a long night, collecting 11 hits of its own and scoring five runs over the final two innings.

Leghorns 12, Fairfield 9

Because of the way the American Legion brackets its tournaments, the Leghorns had to play again Saturday afternoon in temperatures that edged into triple digits.

The game meant nothing but pride for the Leghorns, who had already clinched both a trip to State and a spot in the Area championship game. It meant everything to the Fairfield Expos, who were playing for their tournament life after losing the day before.

Pride prevailed.

In their first nine-inning game of the tournament, the Leghorns rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to end on top in an exciting see-saw battle.

Once again, the Leghorns started like a sprinter, batting around and scoring four runs in the opening inning. The rally was helped along by two hit batters and key hits by Walsh and Thomason.

But the desperate Expos fought back and led, 9-7, after six innings after Garland Webster smashed a long three-run homer in the last of the sixth.

That blow came off Hunter Williams, working in relief of starting pitcher Cooper Cusad, but after the Leghorns scored two runs to tie things in the seventh, Williams took charge, allowing just two Fairfield base runners over the final three innings.

The Leghorns dashed Fairfield hopes with a three-run rally in the eighth with six straight Petalumans reaching base, five on hits by Walsh, Vitale, Patrick (the key hit, a two-run singe), Albano and Meyn.

Williams allowed only a harmless two-out walk to the Expos in the ninth.

Leghorns 10, Chico 8

The Leghorns completed the tournament with another come-from-behind victory, this time over Chico, a team that also advances to the State Tournament.

Petaluma won the game with a three-run rally in the ninth that featured a key bunt that Eric Parnow beat out and a follow-up hit by Charlie Parnow.

It looked like Chico might rally in the last of the ninth when Littleton walked the first batter and went 3-1 on the next, but he fought back for a strikeout and ended the game with a pair of ground outs.

“He gutted it out pretty good there in the ninth,” said Leghorn manager Casey Gilroy.

For the game, Eric Parnow had three hits, Walsh had three, Thomason reached base three times, Vitale was on base three times and Patrick, Albano and Meyn each reached base twice.

“That game was a character builder,” said Gilroy. “We had already clinched a trip to state, but we came to win the ball game.

“One of the biggest things was our patience. We put ourselves in good hitting positions the whole tournament.”

While the Leghorn offense was more than impressive, scoring 75 runs in five games, their defense was also outstanding. Playing on a huge diamond that measured 349 feet down the lines and 389 to center field, the outfielders had a lot of room to roam and Albano, Charlie Parnow and Walsh were all over the outfield. “Our outfield was unbelievable all week long,” noted Gilroy.

With Area behind them, the Leghorns now move on to State and even tougher competiton.

“It is not going to get any easier,” Gilroy pointed out. “There will be some really good teams there. It is going to be another nervous week.”