Petaluma pitcher is Cal bound

“I picked Cal mostly because It is close to home so my family can come see me play.” - Petaluma High pitcher Aaron Davainis|

When few come calling, you just have to reach out.

That is exactly what Petaluma High senior pitcher Aaron Davainis did, and it landed him at the University California. Davainis, the Vine Valley Athletic League Pitcher of the Year and Co-Most Valuable Player, has signed a letter of intent to continue his education and pitchng career at Berkeley.

After a spectacular junior season, a 10-2 record with a 1.36 earned run average, 103 strikeouts and only 22 walks, Davainis attracted attention, but was not heavily recruited. So he took matters into his own hands, putting together a highlight video shot mainly by his mother, Grace, and began circulating it to colleges and recruiting web sites.

Once the highlight video began getting attention many schools, including Arizona State University among others, began showing interest and looking into what the fuss was all about, Petaluman found himself with choices. “I picked Cal mostly because It is close to home so my family can come see me play,” he explained.

Davainis has always had potential, but is not an overnight sensation. He got a taste of varsity life as a sophomore, getting into eight games during the COVID-shortened season. Although he led the team with four wins, he had a 7.10 earned run average, the result of a couple of bad outings.

Last spring it was a whole different ball game as he pitched the Trojans to a 21-10 record and the Vine Valley Athletic League championship.”

“All my mechanics started clicking. It was kind of a surreal feeling,” he explained.

It also helped that Petaluma had a strong defensive team. “I was able to pitch under pressure and know that my teammates had my back,” he said.

Scott Osder inherited Davainis as a mainstay of his first team as Petaluma head coach and made the most of the right-hander’s talent, using him as the mainstay of a team that went 21-10 and lost only one league game while winning the Vine Valley Athletic League championship with an 11-1 record and going on to finish second in the North Coast Section to earn an invitation to the Nor-Cal playoffs.

The coach said that it is more than talent that makes Davainis a D-1 prospect.

“He is a great kid,” said Osder. ”He a great student and a great kid to coach. He is always the first to practice. He is where he is because he has worked his tail off. He wasn’t on anyone’s radar, but he worked hard to get to where he is.”

The coach said, in addition to his physical talent, Davainis knows the game. “He is very smart,” the coach explained. “He calls his own game.”

But it is even more than that. It has to do with an attitude that is confident without being cocky.

“You never see him with bad body language, no matter what the situation,” Osder explained.

Davainis is all about baseball and family. His mother and father, Nicholas, are among his biggest supportser.

Older brother Andrew, now at San Diego State, is a lacrosse player and the pitcher says the two argue constantly over whether lacrosse or baseball is the better sport.

Younger sister, Celia, plays lacrosse and soccer an attends Petaluma Accelerated Charter School.

Davainis made his intentions official in a signing before friends and teammates prior to a workout on the Petaluma diamond, and then it was down to business with practice. Pitcher and Trojans have some high hopes for this spring.

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