The two heavyweights of North Central League I South baseball slugged it out for seven innings Saturday afternoon at McNear Park with St. Vincent the last battler standing.
St. Vincent?s Mustangs held on to defeat Cloverdale, 9-7, in a knock-down, drag-out battle to determine the league?s automatic entry into the North Coast Section Class A playoffs.
There was originally a three-way tie for first place with St. Vincent, Cloverdale and Clear Lake, but Clear Lake had to forfeit a game, leaving two teams at the top.
The teams will share the championship, but Saturday?s game was vital. By winning, St. Vincent not only secured a home game for the first-round of the NCS playoffs, but was seeded No. 1 and faces a Willits team it has already beaten this season in the first round.
Cloverdale was seeded seventh and opens the playoffs against No. 2 seed powerhouse Justin-Sienna.
?It was two good ball clubs going at it,? said St. Vincent coach Gary Galloway. ?We had both played twice already this week and used a lot of pitchers. Lucky for us, Robbie (White) has a rubber arm.
White was the second of three St. Vincent pitchers. Mound ace Nick Baldocchi started and went the first two and two thirds innings, giving up six runs. White came on to shut down the Eagles over the next three innings and sophomore Ian Williams, in just his second pitching effort of the season, picked up a save, surviving a three-hit seventh inning.
Both teams were down, but never really out, in the game where momemtum and emotion were fickle teammates, first favoring one side and then the other.
St. Vincent appeared to take control with a four-run second inning keyed by Mike Dessel?s long three-run triple to left-center field. Dessell then sped home on Adam McKenzie?s short sacrifice fly to right field to make it a 4-1 game.
No sooner had St. Vincent stepped back on the field for the third inning, than Cloverdale unleashed its own bat barrage. The first three Eagles? batters ? Gavin Mills, Rob Rowland and Rich Rowland ? all hit safely and scored. Before White could come on to get the final out of the inning, the Eagles had pulled off a double steal that included a theft of home and scored five runs for a 6-4 lead.
Although far from dominating, Cloverdale pitcher Tyler Lawson held the Mustangs at bay until the fifth inning when Tommy Matthews ripped a long triple to left field, Williams and Dessell were hit on back-to-back pitches and McKenzie and Jordan Fleischmann each delivered two-run singles.
Before it was over, the Mustangs had three runs and a 9-6 lead.
That was the way it was when Williams came on to finish up in the seventh.
It was an adventure.
Mitch Delfino started the inning with a ground single into left field. Williams froze Zack Stroud with a big bending curve ball for called strike three. Lawson singled to center on a pitch that was above eye range to put two men on with one out.
Jason Nelson blooped what might have been a hit to left field, but St. Vincent outfielder Tommy Matthews hustled in to force Delfino out at third base.
While Williams was in the process of walking Matt Galvez, he threw wildly to first base on a pick off try that not only eluded but hid from Mustang first baseman Anthony Fabbri. His throw to home was off line, allowing Lawson to score all the way from second base.
Williams finally ended the battle by getting pinch hitter Mike Gambetta, the only player on the Cloverdale bench, to fly to sure-gloved Dessel in center field for the last out.
St. Vincent had nine hits in the game, with Dessel, McKenzie, White and Williams collecting two apiece. The Mustangs also walked four times and had two batters hit by pitches. Cloverdale had seven hits.
St. Vincent lost a chance to win the league title outright when it fell earlier in the week to Clear Lake, 6-5. The Cardinals erupted for five runs in the fourth inning and added another in the last of the seventh for the win.
St. Vincent out-hit Clear Lake, 12-8, but could manage only one rally, a three-run outburst in the third inning. The Mustangs scored single runs in the first and sixth.
Dessel, Fleischmann, Brian Miller and White each had two hits in the game, with one of Dessel?s blows being a home run.
St. Vincent bounced back from that loss to put a 13-2 whipping on St. Helena in the final regular-season game.
Fabbri led the assault with a triple, a single and three runs scored. Fleischmann and White each had two hits, while Miller hit a home run.
White pitched six innings for the win, allowing jut two runs and two walks, while striking out two.
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