With the extended basketball season, the biggest week of pre-league baseball has caught me by surprise.  

Actually that isn’t the only reason.  

In some things I am old school (maybe most things) and I will admit that Spring Break seems to sneak up on me every year.  When I was going to school, Spring Vacation was actually Easter Vacation and it was always connected by Easter Sunday.   Easter is one of the few special days that moves around anyway.   Every other holiday is pretty much set in stone.   Christmas is December 25th, New Year’s Day is January 1st, Thanksgiving is that Thursday in late November and July 4th is of course on July 4th.   You also have other holidays set up to make it a three day weekend and they are usually the same weekend of the year.

You have to check the calendar to find out when Easter might be.  Three years ago it was in March, last year it was in May and this year it is in mid-April.    The break that used to be next to it moves too and not all school systems have it the same week, although this year most of the breaks seem to be this week.

With the break comes a big week for local baseball tournaments.  It begins on Wednesday with the Rabinovitz Tournament, which is hosted by Montgomery, but played at four different parks in Santa Rosa and later this week will be the Annual Casa Grande, Adam Westcott Memorial Tournament.

The Rabinovitz is mostly a local tournament, with four NBL teams, three from the SCL with one coming from Chico.  It is being played on Wednesday and Thursday, with the eight teams playing three games in two days, two of them hours apart on Wednesday. 

The first round is at 11 am, with games at Montgomery, Santa Rosa and Piner High Schools, along with the one at Doyle Park.   Then some teams will be traveling crosstown for Round two games, which are scheduled to start at 2:30 at the same places.    The final games are Thursday, climaxing with the championship game at Montgomery High School, beginning at 4 pm.  

FIRST ROUND GAMES

Chico (4-1) at Montgomery (3-1)

Petaluma (4-3) at Santa Rosa (2-3)

Windsor (5-0) at Piner (3-2)

Analy (3-3) vs. Ukiah (3-3) at Doyle Park

On the same day, the Montgomery tournament ends, the one at Casa Grande High School begins.  This is a six team tournament, with each playing three games.  There will be three games each on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 

THURSDAY

Sonoma Valley (3-4) vs. Maria Carrillo (3-2) …1 pm

Sonoma Valley  vs. Eureka (1-2)…4 pm

Healdsburg (2-4) vs. Cardinal Newman (1-5)…4 pm

FRIDAY

Healdsburg vs. Casa Grande (6-0)…10 am

Maria Carrillo vs. Eureka…1 pm

Casa Grande vs. Cardinal Newman…4 pm

The Saturday games will be at 10 am, 1 and 4 pm.

All records are unofficial.

Most league races in baseball and softball start next week.  This is a good time to ask fans of teams to contact me to help me cover your teams.   You can email me at jacpasquini@comcast.com or push the like of this post on our Facebook page.    I will contact you and you can let me know if you want to help and if you do, I will tell you how to do it.

HOW AMAZING WAS IT?

Last year’s Casa Grande Baseball team was one for the books.  The Gauchos went 27-3, the last loss in the NCS Division 2 championship game.  Seventeen of the twenty seven wins were by one run, including the first nine of what turned out to be a twelve game winning streak, which started NBL play.

To put that in perspective of how amazing that was, look at this year’s start.  Casa Grande is 6-0 and two of the wins are by one run.   So let’s say they win 21 more games to equal last season’s 27, which is a tall task indeed.   To equal the one run mark of last year they would have to win fifteen of the twenty one by one run.

THIS YEAR’S CASA?

Windsor has started this season 5-0.  Two of the wins have been by one run.

In the second game against American Canyon they scored four runs in the top of the sixth, only to give up five in the bottom of the inning to make it a 10-10 game going into the seventh.   Windsor then scored the winning run in the top of the seventh.

Last Friday, they scored two in the bottom of the seventh to defeat Piner 4-3.  Although he didn’t get a decision, Senior, Mitch Lavery in his second strong start, went five innings, giving up one earned run and struck out nine.   In his first start, he went six, giving up no earned runs in a 3-1 win over Fortuna.

It is a promising start for Windsor who went 9-15 last season, although it does come with a warning.   They started 4-0 last year.

NOT THE ONLY TEAM WITH A PROMISING START

The El Molino Baseball team hasn’t has a winning season since 2009, when they went 13-12.  They came close in 2011 when they went 12-13.   The last two years things haven’t gone so well.

It is promising start for El Molino under first year head coach Tony Franceshi, who missed by two innings of a 5-0 start in an 4-2 eight inning loss to Clear Lake, on Tuesday.   The Lions carried a 2-1 lead into the sixth, before Clear Lake tied the game.  The Lions followed that up on Friday with a 5-3 win over St. Helena to get their fifth win, which is more wins than they had the whole 2012 season.   During the 4-0 start they had a streak of 23 straight scoreless innings.

Pitching and defense is a good combination.   The combination served the Giants well in 2010 and 2012.

TRANSITION

It is not only a transition from the Winter Sports to the Spring Sports for the fans and people covering it, but the players also.

Petaluma Junior, Joelle Krist hasn’t had a problem with the change.  After being a big part of the basketball team that won the SCL post season tournament and made the NCS playoffs, four days after the season ended she was on the softball field and hasn’t miss a beat.   In a 4-1 start, she is batting .625 with a double, two triples, four homers, scored eight runs and drove in fourteen.

Last year, for a team that went 26-2, she hit .500 in 68 at bats with nine doubles, two homers and 18 RBI.

One of Petaluma’s losses was to Concord, which ended the 2013 season in the NCS playoffs.  The two teams meet this Saturday at Petaluma.    Concord is off to a tough start, losing five of its first six games.

THEY’RE BACK

At the end of last season, head Coach Dave Johnson announced his retirement after ten years as Manager of a very successful Rancho Cotate Softball program.    Johnson and Assistant Coach Chris Mohrman have both returned to help two other coaches take over the team in the future.

This is the 11th season for the pair running the team.   During the first ten, they won seven NBL crowns and 2 NCS titles.   They are off to a good start this season, with a 2-0-1 record.   Johnson is six wins away from the 200th at Rancho.

Hopefully one of the things they are preparing the new coaches in the program to do is contact us with scores.   The Rancho Cotate softball program has been one of the best at doing that.  

That reminds me.

You can email me at jacpasquini@comcast.com or push the like button on this post on our Facebook page.    I will contact you and you can let me know if you want to help and if you do I will tell you how to do it.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL ENDING

I didn’t miss the last day of the basketball season.   I have had a busy week, more than normal, and that is why you haven’t seen anything on the high school portion of the weekend.  

We all know what happen by now.   Maybe we should just let the High School Basketball Season rest in peace.

My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net