One no enough for Williams, Trojans

Petaluma High pitcher Hunter Williams has already pitched two no-hit shutouts this season. Tuesday afternoon, he had to settle for the run part of a no-no, allowing five hits in an impressive 4-0 win on the Analy diamond.

The victory kept Petaluma at 7-1, a half-step behind 7-0 Sonoma Valley in the race for the Sonoma County League title. With the loss, Analy fell to 4-4 in league play.

Williams wasn’t exactly masterful Tuesday afternoon, and he received a lot of help from his defensive mates, but he was very good, walking just three and hitting one. Analy had baserunners in each of the first six innings, but Williams was able to wade through the troubled waters each time, aided by clutch defense, especially from Petaluma’s underclass middle infield of junior second baseman Drake Paretti and sophomore shortstop Logan Douglas.

“Some plays are possible and some plays are impossible. We try to make as many plays in between as we can,” said Petaluma coach Paul Cochran.

His Trojans made all the possible plays against Analy, not committing a single error, and tossed in a few plays that bordered on the impossible.

In the fifth inning, with the Tigers’ Carter Merlaud on first after being grazed by a Williams pitch, Analy tried a hit-and-run play, putting Merlaud on the run while batter Devin Ogston tried to hit the ball through the space vacated by second baseman Paretti, who was racing to cover the bag. Ogston succeeded - almost. Almost, because Paretti was able to somehow reverse course, get to the ball moving back to his left and threw the batter out.

The play made two outs, but also put Merlaud at second base, and he swiftly moved to third on a Williams balk. Jack Newman, perhaps Analy’s best hitter, bounced what looked like a sure run-scoring single up the middle, but shortstop Douglas managed to get to the ball almost behind second and made the play for the third out.

Left fielder Ben Sanderson saved the shutout and prevented all sorts of complications when he raced far to his right to make a finger-tip grab of a line drive slugged by pinch-hitter Griffin Cater with two runners on base.

At the plate, Petaluma hit several balls on a line to Analy outfielders but managed to get enough over their heads or out of their reach to plate four runs in the swiftly played contest.

Luke Wheless opened the third inning with an opposite-field single to left. Greg Thomas and Austin Gabbert followed with long doubles, with Thomas driving home Wheless and Thomas coming home on Tyler Williams’ RBI force out.

That would have been enough, but the Trojans added insurance in the fifth and sixth frames.

In the fifth, Thomas singled, was sacrificed to second by Gabbert and scored on Williams’ hard smash to third. The ball took a bad hop, and probably should have been ruled a hit, but was officially an error.

In the sixth, Ty O’Donnell doubled on a long fly that was misplayed by the Analy outfielder and scored on Douglas’ clutch two-out single to right.