Spencer Norman. with all sorts of good help, pitched and hit the Petaluma National Little League 10-11-year-old All-Star team to an emphatic 13-1 win over Napa Wednesday evening, forcing a winner-take-the-title rematch tonight at Lucchesi Park.
Napa went into the game undefeated in the double-elimination tournament, while Petaluma National was playing its third consecutive do-or-die game after losing its first game to Lafayette.
But it was Petaluma that had the energy, not to mention the pitching and hitting, Wednesday.
Norman was the main man for the Petalumans, both on the mound and at the plate.
On the bump, he threw strikes, pitching three strong shutout innings, allowing three hits and a pair of walks. He struck out just one, but relied on the staunch National defense.
In an effort to protect him from the dreaded pitch count, he was taken out in the fourth inning. Garrett Lewis and David Cook took care of pitching things from there.
At the plate, Norman had a game to remember. He got the Nationals started with a solo home run in the first inning, and followed with a grand slam in the third. For the game, he had three hits and a walk, scored two runs and drove in five.
Norman certainly wasn’t alone in hitting heroics for the disciplined Nationals, who combined for 11 hits and accepted eight walks from five Napa pitchers.
Slugger Lewis, who has seen few good pitches in the tournament, screamed a low shot to left field in the second inning and then accepted two walks as Napa pitching around him later in the game.
Wyatt Davis unloaded the longest of four Petaluma homers, trimming a tree well beyond the left-center field fence with a rocket two-run blast in the first, and later doubling.
Matt Baumsteiger doubled in a run in the first inning and then ended the game via the 10-run rule with a three run liner over the center-field fence in the fifth. The pitch was somewhere between his eyes and the bill of his cap, but that didn’t stop him from unloading with the hit that sent everyone home.
Playing perfect defense, the Nationals supported strong pitching performances from all three of its pitchers.
The only pitching glitch for Petaluma came in the fourth inning when Napa took advantage of a spat of wildness from Lewis to score a run on a hit batter, walk and wild pitch.
That tally prolonged the game for another inning, serving only to provide an opportunity for Baumsteiger to get in on the heroics an inning later.
A highlight for Napa was the play of catcher Conner Smith who singled and doubled and was a mainstay behind the plate, keeping National runners alert with his cannon throwing arm, and making a difficult catch of a high pop behind the plate look routine.
The winner of tonight’s game advances to the Division Tournament, which is really the Northern California Championships, the highest a 10-11-year-old team can climb. That tournament will also be hosted by the Petaluma American Little League at Lucchesi Park.
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