by Joe Pasquini
For all schools, except for one, the basketball season is over.
For all schools Spring Sports are well underway.
This is Spring Vacation for some schools. The vacation roves from school to school, but there are enough schools having the vacation this week to have the annual set of Tournaments hosted by Montgomery and Casa Grande.
Of course with the tournament schedule, the weather forecast doesn’t look all that good either.
Montgomery A.L. Rabinovitz Tournament
WEDNESDAY
11 am
Chico at Montgomery
Ukiah at Windsor
Petaluma at Santa Rosa
Analy vs. Northgate at Doyle Park
SECOND ROUND
2:30
Winners bracket games at Montgomery and Doyle Park.
Losers bracket games at Santa Rosa and the Montgomery JV field
THURSDAY
10 am—7th place at Doyle Park
10 am—Consolation at Montgomery
1 pm—Third place at Montgomery
4 pm—Championship Game at Montgomery
This tournament doesn’t fool around, as each team gets three games with four of them playing them in less than 24 hours.
Six of the eight teams have started the season over .500 and the two that haven’t are meeting each other.
That is Petaluma and Santa Rosa, who each started the season with a win and haven’t won since.
For both teams it has been part of a frustrating start.
Three of the last four losses and five of seven by Petaluma have been by one run.   In the three recent losses the winning run has been scored in the seventh inning.   One of those was to Casa Grande 2-1, the same Casa Grande team that was ranked No. 1 in the Press Democrat’s first baseball rankings (YSN365.com version is coming soon).
Petaluma Senior Scott Hilbert is doing well at both the plate and in the field.   He is hitting .417 and in 24 innings on the mound, has an ERA of 0.88 and has struck out 25.
As far as the one run games goes it has been the same case for Santa Rosa who has lost five straight, two of the last three by one run and in both of those games the winning run was scored in the seventh.
Montgomery has been on the other side of the one run games in a 4-0-1 start.   The last two wins have been by one run.   One of those thanks to a four run seventh to steal one from Las Lomas 6-5.  The five run is the most they have given up so far this season.  In the other four games they gave up an average of two runs a game.
After starting 0-2, Chico has won six of eight.   In the latest game they scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat Corning 8-7.
The Ukiah-Windsor game is a preview of the NBL race.
Ukiah has already had a NBL League game, losing to Rancho Cotate 5-2.  Besides that they have won five of seven.
Senior Jeff Piver has driven in a NBL high ten runs.   He also has pitched 21 innings and hasn’t allowed a run.   He has given up only five hits and has struck out 21.
Windsor has won five of its first six, the lone loss to Analy 10-2.
The win over Windsor is part of a three game winning streak for Analy after a 2-2 start.   They have outscored opponents 38-5 during the streak.
Junior Garrett Hill has started the season 3-0 and hasn’t allowed a run in thirteen innings, striking out 14 and walking one.
Analy meets Northgate, who has lost three of four after a 2-0 start.
That isn’t the only tournament this week.
Casa Grande will host its annual tournament beginning on Thursday and running through Saturday,
The following is the schedule.
Thursday
1 pm— Sonoma Valley vs. Healdsburg
4 pm—Sonoma Valley vs. Eureka
4 pm—Cardinal Newman vs. Maria Carrillo
Friday
10 am—Maria Carrillo vs. Casa Grande
1 pm—Healdsburg vs. Eureka
4 pm—Cardinal Newman vs. Casa Grande
The six teams are split up in two divisions of three teams each.
Eureka, Sonoma and Healdsburg are in Pool A
Cardinal Newman, Casa Grande and Maria Carrillo are in Pool B.
Saturday will have a championship, third place and fifth place game.
A preview will be coming on Wednesday.
JUST NOTING
Rancho Cotate also has a league win over Maria Carrillo 5-1.   Those are the only two league game so far and were played because of conflicting Spring Breaks.    The rest of the NBL and the SCL league play start next week.
Rancho Cotate is 6-2 overall.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net