Basic baseball lifts Trojans

With the precision of master craftsmen, Petaluma High School’s baseball Trojans constructed an impressive monument to basic baseball Tuesday afternoon. In the process they beat Sonoma Valley’s Dragons, 4-1, on the Petaluma diamond.

Not only was the game the Sonoma County League opener for both teams, it also was a confrontation between two teams expected to be in the middle of the scramble for the championship of that league.

As if that wasn’t enough, the contest offered a pitching match between two of the best left-handed hurlers in the Redwood Empire - Petaluma’s Danny Marzo and Sonoma Vallley’s Carson Snyder. It was Snyder who shut down the Trojans, 2-0, in the finals of last season’s Sonoma County League Tournament. Marzo was the losing pitcher in that game.

This year’s Trojans, sporting new pin-striped uniforms and a new coach, didn’t batter Snyder on Tuesday’s fine spring afternoon, but they did enough bat damage to win, collecting seven hits and putting runners on base in four of their six batting chances.

Marzo had a few problems but kept the Dragons off balance all afternoon, seldom allowing any solid contact. He gave up just four hits over five innings before turning the mound over to Blake Buhrer for two final shutdown innings.

Petaluma played errorless baseball behind its pitchers, with clutch plays from shortstop Logan Douglas, second baseman Porter Slate and first baseman Devin Gottschall being keys to the big win.

But the real glove standout was center fielder Kempton Brandis.

In the second inning, with the bases jammed with Dragons and one out, the senior tracked down a long belt by Snyder to the deepest part of the spacious Petaluma diamond to make a long journey look routine. The drive scored Sonoma’s only run, but the catch took the steam out of a what could have been a major Dragon uprising.

In the next inning, after a leadoff single by Sonoma’s Ethan Vitale, clean-up hitter Shane O’Malley slammed a line drive into short right center. Brandis flashed in, snared the ball waist high, and threw to first base.

“I saw the runner head toward second,” he said. “I wasn’t worried about getting to the ball, I was worried about my throw.”

No worries needed

The outfielder’s throw was high and off line, but Gottschall came off the bag to make a leaping grab of the throw and barely beat Vitale to the base.

“One of our three commandments is to stay focused on every pitch,” said Petaluma coach Jim Selvitella. “We’ve been doing that very well.”

With Petaluma leading, 3-1, the coach turned the pitching over to Buhrer for a perfect six-up and six-down final two innings.

Petaluma pecked away at Snyder for enough runs to win the game.

One tally came in the first inning when, with runners at first and third, Nick Andraken hit a big chopper to third, and hustled out a two-out hit, allowing Slate to score.

The bat-hot Andrakin’s other two hits were solidly smashed singles in the fourth and sixth innings.

The fourth-inning hit started a two-run rally that gave Petaluma all the offensive support Marzo and Buhrer needed.

Connor Richardson followed the catcher’s leadoff hit with a walk. An out later, Gottschall blooped a single between three Dragon defenders in short center field to load the bases.

Pinch-hitter Bradley Smith grounded what might have been a double-play grounder to shortstop Vitale, but he hustled to barely beat the throw at first base to allow Andrakin to score.

Later in the inning, Richardson scored on a wild pitch.

Just to make sure, Petaluma added a fourth run in the sixth on a walk to Sam Brown, a stolen base by pinch-runner Bryce Smith and Gottschall’s second hit of the afternoon.

Petaluma is now 6-4 on the season and working on a four-game winning streak going into another SCL game at home Friday against Healdsburg.