Leghorns clinch area tournament on no-hitter

Petaluma’s Leghorns Senior American Legion baseball team, dominating for the entire tournament, climaxed a run to the Area Tournament championship with a no-hitter and a top-to-bottom hitting attack Tuesday morning.

Petaluma High School graduate Blake Buhrer wrapped up the Area championship with a five-inning 10-0 no-hit shutout against Siskiyous. The right-hander walked just two, while striking out five.

The game was called by a 10-run rule after five innings.

The competitive contest was over even earlier than the game, coming to a conclusion in the first inning when the Leghorns scored six runs.

Buhrer’s pitching exploit was the most spectacular, but only one of many outstanding mound efforts the Leghorns received during their five games in the Chico-based tournament.

Petaluma opened the tournament with an 11-3 win over Napa with Leghorn veteran Shane O’Malley, a Sonoma Valley graduate, pitching five strong innings.

Petaluma then gave a preview of things to come when it beat Siskiyous, 10-0, with Petaluma High grad Nick Andrakin pitching a complete-game shutout.

Travis Morgan a Casa Grande High School grad, continued his excellent summer with a route-going performance in a 7-2 victory over Eureka.

Jake Duca from Petaluma High, with help from Zake Brockley from Maria Carrillo and Casa Grande’s Cam Downing, eliminated Fairfield, 8-4. Downing, who was given a day off from his catching duties, came on to finish the game.

That brought things down to the championship game and Buhrer’s masterpiece.

Leghorns’ coach Casey Gilroy acknowledged that the change this season from 9-inning to 7-inning games helped his team.

“It is different,” he said. “This year it was beneficial to us. We were able to keep our arms fresh.”

Gilroy said the Leghorn offense “did a really great job. I can’t single anyone out. We had 10 or 11 guys who all contributed. It started with Joe Lampe and Porter Slate at the top of the order and went on from there.”

Ironically, the Leghorns, who have power throughout their lineup, never hit a home run in the Area Tournament.

“We have some really good line-drive and doubles hitters,” Gilroy pointed out.

The Leghorns, now 24-6 on the season, are the No.1 seed from the north in the state tournament. They open play in Yountville Thursday at 3 p.m. against a team from Southern California.

The Petalumans will be joined in the tournament by Siskiyous and Fairfield.

Playing for the Leghorns will be Andrakin (Petaluma), Kempton Brandis (Petaluma), Brockley (Maria Carrillo), Buhrer (Petaluma), Logan Douglas (Petaluma), Downing (Casa Grande), Duca (Petaluma), Max Handron (Sonoma Valley), Nik Kamages (Casa Grande), Lampe (Casa Gande), Chis Latorre (Maria Carrillo), Oscar McCauley (Sonoma Academy), Morgan (Casa Grande), O’Malley (Sonoma Valley), Jesse Robinson (Casa Grande), Slate (Petaluma) and Bradley Smith (Petaluma).