It is the NBL’s turn to start league play on Wednesday.
The league will have a hard time equaling what the SCL did on its opening day.
Petaluma didn’t lose its first game as the YSN365.com No. 1 team. But they didn’t win it either. In a bizarre afternoon at Analy High School in which Petaluma and Analy played not one, but two marathons and didn’t decide anything.
Two marathons, because not only did the Varsity go 11 innings before getting called because of darkness but so did the JV. The Varsity ended 7-7, the JV 1-1. So both games will be finished when the teams play league game No. 2 in Petaluma, on Thursday April 17th.
I wasn’t at this game and it is one of those days I really regret missing, but sometimes things can’t be helped. When I can’t get to an event, I try to get as much information as I can and I will try for the next meeting day at Analy. What I do know is that the key number was seven in the Analy-Petaluma game. Not only was the final 7-7, but the game went the last seven innings without a score.
Even though I wasn’t at the game, loyal YSN365.com fans were updating me with the scores. We have more than a few of those and could use more. The game reminded me of last year’s NCS playoff game between Casa Grande and College Park, another a game that didn’t want to end.
This one didn’t end and when you add to it the JV game not wanting to end either, it was a remarkable afternoon at Analy High School. More details on this game as the week goes on.
By the way, that wasn’t isn’t the longest game Analy has played this season. On Saturday March 8th Analy went 14 innings before defeating Eureka 2-1. Tuesday was the fourth extra inning game Analy has played this season.
Speaking of Casa Grande, they open league play for the North Bay League with a home game against Maria Carrillo, in a game between the No. 2 and 3 YSN365.com ranked teams. The two teams are coming into the game with different momentum.
No. 2 Maria Carrillo (6-2), just spent their last three games at Casa Grande High School, winning them all and along with it the Adam Westcott Memorial Tournament. Casa Grande had an incredible season last year when it came to winning one run games. Maria Carrillo is starting the season out that way. They had a series of four straight one run games, which they split. Then after defeating Sonoma Valley 13-8 in the first round of the Westcott Memorial Tournament that went eight innings, they defeated Eureka 3-2 in the semi-final. The championship game was a relative breather, as they defeated Cardinal Newman 6-2.
Of course Casa Grande was in the same tournament and things didn’t go as well. Things fell apart quickly for them. After opening the tournament with a 3-0 win over Healdsburg, which raised the season opening record to 7-0, they were beaten by Cardinal Newman 11-0. They followed that up with a 5-3 loss to Eureka in the third place game.
That is one of four games on the NBL schedule.
The rest of the schedule:
No. 9 Montgomery at No. 7 Cardinal Newman
No. 5 Windsor at Santa Rosa
No. 10 Ukiah at Rancho Cotate
One other note from the SCL opening day, living proof that momentum is as good as the next pitch (you can use that if you want), Healdsburg defeated No. 6 El Molino 6-0.
El Molino went into the game 9-1 and a five game winning streak, the last three by a combined score of 26-4.
Healdsburg went into the game 3-7 and had just lost all three games in the Westcott Memorial Tournament, losing the last two games by a combined 16-0.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net