Two Petaluma teams in league tournament championship games

It was smooth sailing for the top seeds in their opening games in the North Bay League Oak and Redwood division softball tournaments on Tuesday.

Rancho Cotate, the No. 1 seed in the Oak and The Press Democrat’s top-ranked area team, won its semifinal game 11-0 in five innings over No. 4 seed Maria Carrillo, while St. Vincent — the No. 1 seed in the Redwood — beat up on No. 4 seed Santa Rosa 19-0 in five innings.

The Cougars (16-5) will host No. 2 seed Cardinal Newman (13-12) in the Oak championship game on Thursday at 4 p.m. It will be the fourth meeting of the season between the league’s first- and second-place teams. The Cardinals won the first two meetings, 9-8 and 6-5, before the Cougars won the third, 9-4.

St. Vincent (19-6) will host No. 2 seed Ukiah (16-7) for the Redwood tournament title at 4 p.m. on Thursday. The Wildcats did lose to the Mustangs twice in league play but also handed them their lone league loss.

Rancho Cotate got a complete game from up and down its lineup to put away Maria Carrillo (12-10). Lexi Samson allowed just three hits in five shutout innings, while Tiare Guerrero doubled twice with three RBIs, Haley Wyatt went 3 for 3 with three RBIs and Kailey Yahya had three hits and stole four bases.

Cardinal Newman used a five-run first inning to leap into the lead and never look back in its win over Windsor (16-9). Tori Leighton doubled with two RBIs, Sophia Esposti had two hits with an RBI while Ava Walters and Christell McCormick each had a hit and drove in a run. Starting pitcher Callie Howard threw a complete game, allowing five hits and an earned run with three strikeouts and four walks in seven strong innings.

Mia Avila doubled and drove in a run in a 3-for-3 day for the Jaguars.

St. Vincent put forth a dominant showing in its big win over Santa Rosa. The Mustangs led 7-0 through two innings before plating four more in the third and eight in the fourth.

Starting pitcher Sophia Skubic struck out nine and allowed just two hits in a five-inning complete game. All nine batters in St. Vincent’s lineup recorded RBIs, led by Maddy DeLaMontanya’s 4-for-4 performance with two doubles and three RBIs. Maddie Badaglia also had three hits and Skubic two.

Ukiah advanced with an 8-7 come-from-behind win over No. 3 seed Piner.

The Wildcats scored three runs in the first but found themselves trailing after the Prospectors scored five runs in the second inning. The game stood tied at 6-6 after four innings until Piner retook the lead with a run in the sixth, but the Wildcats responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead for good.

Individual stats were not available for Ukiah.

Malina Weerts went 4 for 4 with two RBIs to lead Piner, while Nataya Brown (2 for 4), Bryce MacMillan (1 for 3), Kylee Brown (2 for 3) and Leena Martinez (1 for 3) each drove in a run.

Baseball

The title game of the Vine Valley Athletic League tournament will not feature a rematch of first-place Petaluma and second-place Casa Grande.

The top-seeded Trojans (18-7) did advance with a 7-1 win over No. 4 seed Sonoma Valley in the semifinals on Tuesday, but Casa Grande, the No. 2 seed, dropped its semifinal game 9-3 to No. 3 seed Justin-Siena.

Petaluma and Justin-Siena (18-6) will face off at Arnold Field in Sonoma for the tournament title on Friday at 7 p.m.

The Gauchos (17-8) led 2-1 early but struggled to keep up offensively with the resurgent Braves, who took the lead for good with a three-run third inning. They added two runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth to take full control of the game.

Alex Cruz hit a two-run home run and Dylan Petersen had three hits with an RBI but Justin-Siena pitchers David Elias (five innings, five hits, two runs, four strikeouts) and Dalen Tinsley (two innings, two hits, one run, four strikeouts) kept the Gauchos mostly in check.

Petaluma, meanwhile, blew open a tight game with five runs in the fifth inning to beat the Dragons (10-14) going away.

Joe Brown hit his seventh home run of the year and drove in three runs, Dante Vachini tripled in a two-hit day with an RBI Leonardo Salvato went 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

Starting pitcher Zach Fiene struck out three with four hits, four walks and a run allowing in 5⅓ innings of work to pick up the win. Jacob Haugen closed the game out with two strikeouts and a hit in the final 1⅔ innings.