Napa High's Dylan Chatham slides into second base as St. Helena's Micah Marquez takes the throw on Feb. 23.
Andy Wilcox
The Napa High baseball team has its best record heading into league play since its most recent playoff season of 2017-18, its last year in the Monticello Empire League, and the future looks even brighter.
The 6-3 Grizzlies will host defending Vine Valley Athletic League champion Casa Grande (3-1) at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Mount Field, where they dropped an 8-4 decision to Rancho Cotate on Friday after winning four in a row. Casa, which rolled 16-8 at Northgate on Saturday, will host Napa High on Thursday.
The VVAL has done away with first and second halves of league play in baseball this year by having teams face an opponent twice in the same week -- as MEL teams used to do in the first two of their three meetings against each other. It keeps a team from being able to use the same pitcher against an opponent both times.
Napa High is led at the plate by sophomore catcher Drew Herbert with a .417 batting average, 8 RBI, 10 hits, 8 walks and 12 runs scored.
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"Drew is somebody we're really excited about," Napa assistant coach Dustin Green said of Herbert, who was the Grizzlies designated hitter as a freshman. "He's a great hitter for his age."
Among Grizzlies with at least 15 plate appearances, underclassmen have seven of the top eight batting clips.
Along with Herbert, they are juniors Dylan Chatham (.350, 7 RBI) and Mason Bartlett (.308, 3 doubles, 8 runs scored, 3 RBI), sophomores Gabriel Reyes (.273, 2 RBI) and Mason Rozalski (.211, 2 doubles, 3 RBI), junior Collin Taylor (.231, 7 runs scored, 2 RBI) and sophomore Francisco Robinson (.211, 2 doubles, 6 RBI).
Taylor plays in center field and also can play middle infield and pitch.
Napa High's five seniors are Trent Adams (.286, 5 runs scored), Logan Draper (.133, 5 RBI), Camden Aldous (.188), Joey Payne (1 for 6) and Jake Newman (8 innings pitched, 1 of 7 runs earned).
Leading the pitching staff were sophomores Rozalski (18 innings, 2-2 record, 2.72 ERA, 25 strikeouts, 11 walks) and Robinson (11 1/3 innings, 2-0 record, 3.71 ERA, 20 strikeouts, 9 walks). As freshmen on the varsity, they combined to give up 8 earned runs in 10 innings.
Adams led last year's pitching staff with 38 innings and a 3.32 ERA but missed the first five games of this season due to injury. He has pitched eight innings this season and is 1-0 with a 1.75 ERA.
"Trent was our ace last year and we expect him to lead our team in innings this year," Green said. "He plays shortstop when he doesn't pitch and he'll be in the middle of our lineup."
Head coach Jason Chatham, who has been at the Grizzlies' helm since the VVAL's first season in 2019, said after a season-opening 3-2 loss at St. Helena that Robinson and Rozalski would be keys to the team's success this year. Robinson, a southpaw, came back from a two-run first with a shutout second before the righthanded Rozalski held the Saints scoreless for all three of his middle frames. Rozalski also led the Grizzlies' four-hit attack by going 2 for 3 with a double.
"We have young guys with live arms," Chatham said. "Frankie came out in the first inning and didn't have great control, but after that he settled down and he was really tough to hit. Rozalski, kind of the same thing. He came out and he was rushing his delivery. After we got that ironed out and he got to a balance point, he became dominant. That's one of the things you're going to have with young guys. They're going to come out overaggressive, which is good, but then you have to tone it back so they play within themselves. I thought they did a good job."
St. Helena won on a two-out squeeze bunt single in the bottom of the seventh.
"Defensively, for the most part, up until that last inning, I thought we did a pretty good job of keeping the ball in front of us and making the plays. Offensively, Niko (Titolo, sophomore) had our first hit. I was pretty proud of him for coming out and having a couple of big swings.
"And I thought early on we had a couple of baserunning things that worked out for us. We tried to get aggressive on a ground ball to second when he threw to first and we wheeled around to third. Coach Green did a good job of sending some guys on some steals to put us in scoring position.
"But in the last two innings we had guys on second with nobody out and we weren't able to execute the offense and drive guys in."
The other seniors are left fielder Draper, first baseman Aldous and outfielder Payne.
Two of the sophomore starters are second baseman Reyes and third baseman Titolo. Chatham (7 1/3 innings, 13 strikeouts, 3 of 6 runs earned) pitches and plays first base. "Dylan didn't play baseball last year but he's here this year and he's hungrier than ever," Coach Chatham said of his son. "He gets after it in the weight room and he's a good kid."
Bartlett is a shortstop and leadoff hitter, and Robinson batted cleanup against St. Helena.
"We're definitely building, but we're pretty happy with the direction we're heading in right now, for sure."
The Grizzlies will have four more nonleague games in the middle or after league play, including one against Wheatland at 6:30 p.m. March 5 at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, home of the San Francisco Giants' Triple-A River Cats.
"That's going to be one of our highlights this season," said Coach Chatham. "One thing we're really proud about is our program is growing. We like the way we go about our business and do things. We really stress what a student-athlete is and the big picture, growing our boys into young men. That's a big hallmark of our program, and we've got some pretty talented boys."
Green enjoys being on Chatham's staff.
"Jason has done an amazing job building this culture," he said. "He took over as head coach six years ago, when we were not in a great place in terms of talent, numbers or the overall vibe of our program. Now we feel like we're in a much better place."
Unlike the Napa and Vintage softball teams, which opened VVAL play against each other on Friday, the crosstown rivals' baseball squads won't meet until April 23 and 25.
Vintage (2-5) finished its tough preseason with a 5-2 home loss to Ukiah on Saturday. The Crushers' five losses have been to teams with a combined 20 wins, including Acalanes (7-0) in 10 innings, 2-1, earlier this month.
Among players with at least 18 plate appearances, the Crushers are led by senior Ian Fernandez -- who signed with UC Santa Barbara in November -- with a .500 batting average, 5 RBI, 10 hits, 3 doubles and 9 walks.
Next is junior Dario Freschi (.318, triple, 4 RBI, 7 hits, 4 walks, 3 hit by pitches, 4 runs scored), sophomore Blake Porter (.261, 6 hits, double, 4 walks), senior Kai Gulliksen (.250, 2 RBI, 5 hits, 4 walks, 5 runs scored), junior John Bullock (.238, 5 hits, 2 doubles, 3 RBI, 4 walks), senior Austin Buffler (.231, 2 RBI), James Burgess (.188, 3 hits), Carson McCaffrey (.182, 4 hits) and Jeffery Page (.067, 3 walks).
Senior pitcher Joseph Willis is 2-1 with both wins for Vintage. He hurled three innings of shutout middle relief in a 6-2 win over visiting Pinole Valley on March 8, fired a 2-hit, 4-0 shutout against visiting Novato on March 11, and got the loss against Ukiah on Saturday.
It's Petaluma week for the Crushers, who host the Trojans at 4 p.m. Tuesday and visit them on Thursday. Petaluma (5-3) is coming off Saturdayt's 3-1 home win over Windsor.
Justin-Siena wraps up 6-2 preseason
The Braves defeated St. Patrick-St. Vincent 8-2 on Thursday in Vallejo, hanging all 8 runs in the first three innings in support of a dominant Everet Johnson.
After giving up an infield single to lead off the first inning, the UC Davis signee retired 20 batters in order en route to the complete game victory.
Justin-Siena had nine stolen bases, three each by seniors Ben Sebastiani and Jason Gray.
The win that clinched a North Coast Section Division 4 playoff spot for the Braves by giving them a 5-2 record against teams in their division or smaller; they have two more nonleague games against D-4 foes in Lick-Wilmerding on March 23 and Hercules on April 4.
The Braves defeated Rodriguez 4-2 on Friday at Yarbrough Park in Fairfield, striking first when Hank Meyers drilled an opposite-field RBI triple into a stiff wind.
A back-and-forth pitchers' duel ensued in a game that was tied 2-2 going into the sixth.
In the top half, Justin-Siena's Sam Denkin stood on second base after a two-out steal before coming around to score on Braeden Butler's RBI single.
In the bottom half, Rodriguez moved the tying run into scoring position with a leadoff single and well-executed sacrifice bunt. After Tommy Malloy reeled in a shoestring grab for the second out, the Mustangs' leadoff batter single to center field, only for Gray to fire in a seed to catcher Jake Fletcher to erase the runner at the plate and end the inning.
Seizing the momentum, the Braves extended their advantage right away with Noah Giovannelli and Johnson knocking back-to-back doubles. Working his longest outing of the season, Griffin Messenger took the mound for his fourth inning of work in relief of starter Butler and close the door in the seventh, working his way through the middle of the Mustangs order with a strikeout and pair of groundouts.
Justin-Siena visits Sonoma Valley (4-2) on Tuesday and hosts the Dragons on Thursday in 4 p.m. games.
Dave Mosher contributed to this report.
Today in sports history: March 19 1950: Babe Didrikson Zaharias shoots a record 298 to capture US Women's Open 1960: Ohio State wins NCAA basketball title with 75-55 victory against California 1966: Brigham Young beats New York University 97-84 for NIT championship. 2006: Tennessee's Candace Parker is first woman to dunk in NCAA tournament game 2009: Alex Ovechkin becomes Washington's first three-time 50-goal scorer 2011: Butler upsets top-seeded Pittsburgh in one of wackiest finishes in NCAA tournament history 2011: Omar Cummings first MLS player to score goal in four consecutive season openers 2011: Duke gives coach Mike Krzyzewski his 900th career victory 2011: Penn State wins its first NCAA wrestling title in 58 years 2012: No. 1 UConn holds Kansas State to 26 points in tourney win Tags Baseball Sports Softball Games And Toys Job Market Armed Forces Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
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