Maybe I am making a bigger deal out of this Casa Grande baseball run then it deserves.
I have been trying to find out what the record is for the most one run wins in a row and am not having much success.
I googled trying to find that and one of the stories that showed was about a high school team from Pennsylvania who is 5-3, with four of those wins by one run including the last three.
In that article they are comparing them to the Baltimore Orioles of last year because they were so good at winning one run games. Last year they were 29-9 in one run games. That means that just under a quarter of their games were decided by one run and they have a winning percentage at about 76.
Casa Grande starts the second half of the NBL race hosting Maria Carrillo. This is the rematch of the first league game back on March 27th. I don’t have to tell you who won that game and how much they won by. This score was 3-2 and started the amazing run through the first half of the league race.
Casa Grande is 7-0 in league play, which is a two game lead over Montgomery and Rancho Cotate.
During this run they have outscored opponents 19-12. That means they have scored under three runs a game and are 7-0.
On the season they have given up 34 runs in 17 games which is exactly two runs a game. After an opening season loss, they have won 16 straight. Only once did they give up more than three runs and that was on March 16th, when they defeated Livermore 8-5.
They have held opponents to one run or less in eight of the sixteen wins. They have a team ERA of 1.12.
This is the third game of the season between Casa Grande and Maria Carrillo. Besides that opening league game the two teams also met in the Casa Grande tournament. Casa Grande won that game by a score of 7-1.
Yes it is shocking that it wasn’t a one run game also.
One more note about the seven league wins. On Tuesday the 1-0 win over Montgomery was the first one run win by that score during league play. The other six games had two each of 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 scores.
Last season Casa Grande went 20-7. They were 4-3 in one run games.
Since it is the halfway point it means everybody plays everybody one more time.
The two teams tied for second have No. 3 Montgomery at Cardinal Newman and No. 4 Rancho Cotate hosting Ukiah.
Cardinal Newman goes into the second half tied with Maria Carrillo for fourth place, three games behind Rancho Cotate. The top four qualify for the NBL post season tournament.
SCL BASEBALL AT HALFWAY POINT ALSO
It appears this is last stand time for Sonoma Valley if they are going to successfully defend their championship. They start the second half with a home game against No. 2 Analy, who went through the first half 6-0 and is two games ahead of three teams including Sonoma Valley.
The pattern for this league race was set when the two teams started off league play with Analy rallying for a 6-5 win.
By the way that is Analy’s only one run win in league play. They have won 12 of 13 overall and are 14-3 on the season.
The two teams tied with Sonoma Valley for second place are Petaluma and Piner.
Petaluma, who missed a chance to pull into a tie for first with a 5-2 loss to Analy on Tuesday, starts the second half with a home game with Healdsburg which will be played Saturday Morning.
Meanwhile Piner hosts Elsie Allen.
NO MORE MAGIC NUMBERS
Sorry to SRJC for the mention of magic numbers.
The race has become too close now for the use of that
The key numbers now are one and four.
The one is what the lead is and four is how many games left.
For the first time this season SRJC has lost two straight games, both to San Joaquin Delta and both by one run.
On Tuesday the Bear Cubs dropped an 8-7 game in eleven innings and then on Thursday after taking an early 3-0 lead, they fell 4-3.
Sierra won on Thursday to cut the SRJC lead to one.
SRJC finishes the three games series at San Joaquin Delta on Saturday.
STILL TIED
Rancho Cotate and Maria Carrillo both won on Thursday to stay in a tie for first place in the loss column in the NBL softball race.
No. 3 Rancho Cotate defeated No. 4 Windsor 7-2. Kazja Fa’agata-Averbuck pitched a complete game and also hit a homer. Fa’agata-Averbuck is a sophomore and is batting .450 on the season.
No. 4 Maria Carrillo defeated Cardinal Newman 12-2. Shelby Holsworth had two hits including a two run homer that ended the game in the fifth because of the ten run rule.
Rancho Cotate is 6-1 in league play, Maria Carrillo is 5-1. The one less game is because Maria Carrillo still has a make-up game with Windsor on the schedule.
Rancho Cotate is at Maria Carrillo next Thursday. Before that on Tuesday, Rancho Cotate host Ukiah and Maria Carrillo travels to Casa Grande.
Casa Grande defeated Montgomery 10-1 and is third place at 4-2.
ON A ROLL
Petaluma senior Dana Thomsen has had quite a week. In the big showdown game against Analy on Tuesday she pitched a perfect game in 10-0 win to give Petaluma sole possession of first place in the SCL race.
On Thursday she followed the up with a one hit 10-0 win over Healdsburg. In the game she pitched a one hitter and fourteen of the fifteen outs were strikeouts.
Thomsen is 10-1 on the season with an ERA of 0.95.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net