Teams wrap up regular season with non-league contests

Teams in the North Bay League Oak and Redwood divisions wrapped up league play last week, and with the standings now finalized, the field for the postseason NBL tournament is set.

The baseball tournaments will be played on Wednesday and Friday, while softball will play Tuesday and Thursday. All games will take place at the site of the higher seed.

In Oak division baseball, Windsor (19-5, 8-2) earned the No. 1 seed and will host No. 4 seed Maria Carrillo (10-13-1, 4-6) in the first round. Cardinal Newman (18-5, 8-2) is the No. 2 seed and will host No. 3 seed Ukiah (16-7, 6-4).

While Windsor and Cardinal Newman finished tied atop the Oak standings at 8-2 and shared the league title, the Jaguars’ sweep of the Cardinals this week was the tiebreaker for the tournament’s top seed.

In Redwood baseball, West County (18-5, 12-0) is the No. 1 seed and will host No. 4 seed St. Vincent in the first round. Healdsburg (15-9, 8-4) is the No. 2 seed and will host No. 3 seed Santa Rosa (7-17, 5-7).

In Oak softball, Rancho Cotate (15-5, 11-4) earned the No. 1 seed and will host No. 4 seed Maria Carrillo (12-9, 8-7) in the first round. Cardinal Newman (12-12, 9-6) is the No. 2 seed and will host No. 3 seed Windsor (16-8, 9-6).

The Cardinals and Jaguars tied for second in the standings, but the Cardinals were 2-1 against the Jaguars in league play.

In Redwood softball, St. Vincent (18-6, 14-1) earned the No. 1 seed and will host No. 4 seed Santa Rosa (7-14, 6-9) in the first round. Ukiah (15-7, 12-3) is the No. 2 seed and will host No. 3 seed Piner (11-10, 9-6).

Baseball

In nonleague action on Saturday, Cardinal Newman was stymied by a UCLA pitching commit in a 5-0 loss to College Park-Pleasant Hill.

The Cardinals, the No. 2 team in The Press Democrat’s top 10 and the No. 22 team in the state by CalHi Sports’ rankings, managed just one hit against College Park senior Michael Barnett, who struck out nine with a walk in a complete-game shutout.

Cardinal Newman has now dropped three straight heading into the NBL tournament next week.

No. 3 Petaluma dropped a tough nonleague game to St. Ignatius-San Francisco on Saturday, 16-7.

The Trojans (17-7) trailed 8-6 after two innings before the Wildcats pulled ahead with seven runs combined in the fifth and sixth.

Cal commit Joe Brown hit his sixth home run of the year and drove in three runs and Wyatt Davis added a pair of RBIs.

On Friday night, the Trojans closed out Vine Valley Athletic League play with a 6-0 win over Vintage behind another complete-game shutout from ace Aaron Davainis.

Davainis struck out seven with two walks and six hits allowed to improve to 8-0 on the season and lower his earned run average to 0.95. Brown whacked a three-run home run, Spencer Norman doubled in a three-hit day and David Wood drove in a pair.

The Trojans won the VVAL title outright and will be the No. 1 seed in the league tournament.

No. 4 Casa Grande routed No. 6 Ukiah 11-2 in a nonleague game on Saturday.

Austin Steeves struck out six and allowed two hits, a run and a walk in five strong innings for the Gauchos (17-7) before Wyatt Abramson closed things out with three strikeouts over two innings of relief.

Alex Cruz had two hits and four RBIs and JT Summers doubled with two RBIs while Jordan Giacomini and Brice Cox each doubled with an RBI.

Ethan Holbrook had two hits and drove in a run for the Wildcats (16-8).

Ukiah scored an 11-1 win over No. 8 Rancho Cotate on Friday to close out NBL-Oak play.

Austin Ford struck out five with a walk, four hits and a run in five innings for the win and also tripled with three RBIs at the plate. Caleb Ford struck out seven over two innings of relief for the save.

Ethan Rinehart and Kessler Koch each had two hits with two RBIs.

Also on Friday, No. 10 Healdsburg took down St. Vincent 6-5 in eight innings to round out play in the NBL-Redwood.

The Greyhounds held a 2-1 lead after five innings before the Mustangs scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 4-2 lead. The ʼHounds responded with three runs of their own in the top of the seventh, but Dante Antonini led off the bottom of the frame with a game-tying solo home run.

Gavin Valls then put Healdsburg back on top with a solo home run to lead off the eighth before closing the game out with an inning of relief in the bottom of the frame. Valls drove in a game-high three runs and starting pitcher Matthew Rowland got the win after going seven innings with six hits, five earned runs, three walks and four strikeouts.

Eddy Stone also homered for St. Vincent and starting pitcher Josh Malik went six strong innings with eight hits, three runs, a walk and three strikeouts.