NCS PLAYOFFS: Casa Grande takes care of business, advances to second round

Casa Grande High School’s baseball Gauchos took care of business in the first round of the North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs Tuesday evening, swatting aside Rancho Cotate’s Courgars, 8-2.|

Casa Grande High School’s baseball Gauchos took care of business in the first round of the North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs Tuesday evening, swatting aside Rancho Cotate’s Courgars, 8-2.

Casa Grande will next host the winner of the Northgate vs. Ukiah game Friday afternoon.

Petaluma High was to open its playoff run Wednesday afternoon at home against Montgomery. Results of that game were not available at press time.

Casa used three pitchers to subdue the Cougars, with Chris Joaquim toiling five workman-like innings to get the win and Cody McGunagle and Spencer Torkelson each providing a scoreless frame to finish things off.

Joaquim worked in turmoil in every inning, but he managed to get the big out when it was most needed, twice spoiling potential Cougar rallies with two-out strikeouts with runners on base. He allowed just four hits, but kept the pot boiling with three walks and two hit batters. He finished with four strikeouts.

He needed little in the way of extraordinary glove work from his support mates, unless you count catching routine fly balls in the notorious cross winds that blow across Casa’s immaculate diamond as extraordinary.

The Gauchos did bail their pitcher out with an inning-ending double play with two runners on base in the second inning, but they had so much time to pull off the twin kill that shortstop Hance Smith actually double clutched his throw to first after receiving the feed from second baseman Eddie Bermudez and still had ample time to complete the play.

It was at the plate that Casa Grande really shined, rapping 11 hits off a trio of Rancho Cotate pitchers.

“We’re hot at the right time,” said Casa Grande coach Paul Maytorena. “We are a confident group at the plate right now.”

After a quiet first inning, Casa Grande scored three runs in the second and just kept scoring, adding a solo run in the third, three more in the fourth and a final count in the fifth.

The total might have been higher had the Gauchos not left eight runners stranded in six innings.

The batting assault was a total Casa community affair, with the Gauchos hitting from top to bottom of their order.

At the top, leadoff hitter Bermudez had two hits, one a bunt, a walk and scored a run.

At the bottom, Brian Kolodin, a last-minute insertion into the lineup, blasted two long doubles, scored a run and drove in a run.

In between: Blake Berry singled to drive in a run.

Torkelson singled twice and walked (intentionally), scored a run and drove in a run.

Quinton Gago singled.

Smith singled, scored a run and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

John Green singled, beating out an infield hit.

Sophomore Dylan Moore singled, walked and scored two runs.

AJ Miller blasted a long double, walked and scored twice. It was his two-out blast in the second inning that drove home the Gauchos’ first two runs and got their offense started.

It all added up to business as usual for a team that is now 21-5 on the season.

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