The results were good and bad, as was the quality of play, for the Petaluma High School baseball team last week.
Petaluma played extremely well against American Canyon in an 8-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, the Trojans had trouble with the same basics they had played so proficiently two days earlier in a 6-3 loss to league-leading Sonoma Valley.
The results left Petaluma with a 4-1 Vine Valley Athletic League record (7-3 overall) and a half step behind Sonoma, still perfect in league play with a 4-0 record. American Canyon is 2-2 in league.
Proficient win
Petaluma wasn’t perfect, but it was proficient in the win over American Canyon.
Playing under threatening but never really rain-dropping skies, the Trojans pitched, hit and played defense in one of their most complete games of the season.
The pitching for the Trojans against American Canyon’s Wolves was handled by Gavin Ochoa, the leader of the Trojans’ sophomore squad of outstanding young throwers.
Ochoa was masterful. He offset his strong fastball with curve control and a strikeout-inducing change-up to fan eight Wolves, while walking just three and allowing four hits.
Although he allowed base runners in every inning, only in the fourth frame did he permit an American Canyon runner to reach home.
That score came on two-out, back-to-back hits by Cameron Peters and Angel Cota.
By then, Petaluma had already scored four runs and was well on its way to the win.
Hitting was up and down the Petaluma lineup, with six Trojans collecting safe hits. Sam Jacobs, Nico Bertolucci and Mark Wolbert swatted two each.
More impressive than the hit total was the Petaluma contact.
“We hit from top to bottom. Even many of our outs were hit hard. Sam Brown has never hit the ball harder,” said Petaluma coach Jim Selvitella.
Brown smashed a shot directly at first base for a force out in the first inning, hit a hard single to drive in two runs in the second and blasted a long drive to the deepest part of center field in the fifth. That ball was run down by American Canyon outfielder Tyler Reed, who made a spectacular running catch. Had it been hit to any other area of the field, it would have left the yard, and quite possibly would have carried beyond the center-field fence on a warmer, drier afternoon.
Brown was not the only Trojan to slam shots into outs. Several Trojans cracked long drives that died in the soggy atmosphere and were caught.
It wasn’t just the pitching and hitting that shined for the Trojans. Despite his dominance, Ochoa spent most of the afternoon pitching from a stretch as American Canyon placed runners on base in every inning.
Often he was bailed out by a solid, sometimes spectacular Petaluma defense.
Second baseman Jacobs made a diving stop and throw to save a run in the third inning, and first baseman Brown made a highlight reel over-the-shoulder snare of a foul ball after a long run to end the sixth inning.
Petaluma led the game from the beginning, scoring a run in the first inning on Jack Gallagher’s long sacrifice fly, and pretty much putting it away with a three-run second that included a perfect bunt from Bertolucci and hits by Mario Zarco and Brown.
Add-on runs came in the fourth on a double by Jacobs and a single by Wolbert, and two in the sixth on hits by Jacobs and Bertolucci, along with a double by Wolbert.
Different story
It was a different story against Sonoma, with the Trojans squandering an early lead in a raggedly played game.
Petaluma out-hit the Dragons, 9-6, but hurt its own cause with four walks and three errors.
Sonoma pitcher Joe Costanzo worked in constant trouble, giving up seven hits, but walked only two while staggering through six innings backed by several spectacular plays from his defenders.
Those Sonoma defenders faltered early, committing two errors in the first inning when Petaluma scored two runs after two were out on a clutch two-RBI single by Mario Zarco.
Meanwhile, Trojan starting pitcher Sam Brown fired smoke in the first two innings, striking out six Dragons, including four in the second frame when Sonoma’s Dustin Pierce reached first base when his third strike eluded Petaluma catcher Jack Gallagher.
No problem, Brown just struck out the next two Dragons.
Everything changed in the pivotal third inning when Brown lost direction, walking three Dragons in a four-run Sonoma rally. The key blow was delivered by Tyler Garrett, who drove in two runs on a single to center field.
Before the inning was finished, two more runs had scored, both on wild pitches.
Brown allowed just two hits, but the walks were the killers.
Julian Garrahan took over one out into the fourth inning. He was generally effective, but a couple of Petaluma errors helped Sonoma score two runs in the fifth.
Meanwhile, as the skies darkened and finally started dripping, Petaluma continually threatened and scored a run in the sixth, but it was too little, too late.
Garett Lewis and Wolbert each had two hits for the Trojans.
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