MAJOR LEAGUE: Petaluma Valley, Petaluma National on collision course

The Petaluma National and Petaluma Valley leagues are headed on a collision course in the District 35 Major Little League Tournament.|

The Petaluma National and Petaluma Valley leagues are headed on a collision course in the District 35 Major Little League Tournament being held primarily at the National’s Carter Field home on the Petaluma Junior High School campus this week.

Both the National and Valley had high-scoring first-game wins Sunday, and could meet in the winners’ bracket semifinals Friday night at Carter, but both had to clear major hurdles on Wednesday. The Nationals were to play Westside from Santa Rosa, while the Valley was to take on Ukiah. Results from those games were not available at press time.

Westside scored 54 runs in two games over the weekend, beating Healdsburg, 27-3, and El Molino, 27-0. Ukiah had just one game, taking care of Fort Bragg, 12-2.

Both the Petaluma National and Petaluma Valley stars scored runs by bunches in their only games of the weekend, but while the Valley won a blow out over Sebastopol, 11-1, the Nationals had a real battle before pulling out a 15-12 win over Rincon Valley.

Three in a row

The Petaluma Valley started the tournament with a triple-bang on back-to-back-to-back home runs in the first inning of its game against Sebastopol.

Jaden Julian, Dante Antonini and Jake Lannert connected in succession, and the game was never in doubt.

Lannert had a big day for the Valley, going 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles to go with his homer, and driving in five runs.

Ben Wilson sealed the mercy-rule victory with a walk-off double in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Aidan Lombardi pitched a strong 3? innings before stepping aside because he had reached 50 pitches and the coaches wanted to preserve him for further use.

Wild win for Nationals

The Petaluma Nationals earned their advancement by prevailing in one of the wildest of a weekend of wild slugfests, downing Rincon Valley’s hard-swinging All-Stars.

Petaluma scored five times in the sixth inning to pull out the important win in a wide-open game that featured 27 hits, 14 by the Nationals and 13 by Rincon Valley.

The game was a carnival, with twists, turns, drops, spins and multiple other thrills.

Early on, it looked like Rincon Valley might dominate the Nationals in the same manner it had dominated the Petaluma American, 18-5, the day before.

Mateo Lepe lashed a drive to the right-field fence in the first inning as the Santa Rosans jumped out to a 4-0 lead.

Meanwhile, the Petalumans seemed helpless against Rincon Valley starting pitcher Ryan Hunt, who struck out five Nationals in the first two innings.

The cruise for Hunt ended in the third inning when Petaluma took advantage of five walks to score seven runs. The Nationals had only three hits in the uprising, but they were big ones. Luke Reavi ripped a double to the wall in right center to drive home a run. Later in the inning, Mark Wolbert and Nate Zimmerman went over the fence with back-to-back home runs. Wolbert’s blast drove home three runs.

The game’s second half was an emotional roller-coaster, with the lead bouncing back and fourth between the clubbing contestants. After scoring five runs in the third, Rincon Valley went back in front, 9-8, in the fourth with Logan Kraut keying the rally with a two-run double.

Hits by Wyatt Davis, Devaneaux Sagaral and Rivas provided the Nationals two runs in the top of the fifth and a 10-9 lead.

Just as quickly as they were up, the Nationals were down again. Grady Zucco bombed a drive over the center-field fence to spark a three-run Rincon Valley rally in the bottom of the fifth and a 12-10 lead.

With just three outs to work with in the top of the sixth, Petaluma once again unleashed its bats, scoring five runs on five hits. Big blow in the rally was a two-run drive over the right-center field fence by Sagaral.

In front, 15-12, the Nationals still needed three outs to secure advancement, and in the wildness that was this game, three runs was not a comfortable lead.

But Wolbert, the fourth National pitcher, made the advantage stand good, striking out two to preserve the win.

Petaluma American, after an opening 18-3 loss to Rincon Valley, made a successful start back through the losers’ bracket Tuesday evening, defeating El Molino, 14-2.

The championship game will be played Saturday at 11 a.m. at Carter Field. A second game, if necessary, will be played Sunday at 11 a.m.

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