On the YSN Facebook page the score was posted:
Casa Grande 2 Windsor 1
There was a comment to it that said, “OMG that is getting freaky”.
It is past freaky.
The Casa Grande win raises its NBL record to 9-0, all nine wins by one run. During this improbable run they are averaging 2.5 runs a game. In the last four games they have scored seven runs.
Yet here they are. They are the 2010 Giants revisited.
Pitching, defense and timely hitting is what they are about.
The timely hitting is whenever they are hitting. In this game they had five hits. That is the least amount of hits they have had during this run.
Iggy Llorence’s sacrifice fly in the fourth gave Casa Grande a 1-0 lead. The way that Nick Marks was pitching that looked like that was going to be enough. He carried a one hitter into the fifth inning. In that inning Casa Grande made its only error of the game which led to the Windsor run. Even in the inning when they committed the error, they made two sparkling plays on defense, on by Marks himself to stop the inning from really getting out of control.
That was after a top of the fifth inning that Casa Grande had a chance to break the game open having the bases loaded and one out. But that isn’t the way it works for this team. A 1-2-3 double play kept the score 1-0.
The tie was short lived as Casa Grande scored the winning run on a RBI single by Zack Shimek in the sixth.
Marks won his second game of the season going five inning and giving up two hits, both of them in that fifth inning when Windsor tied the game. Eric Parnow took care of things from there striking out five to pick up his fourth save. Parnow, who is a sophomore, has struck out 44 in 29 1/3 innings.
The 2-1 score was the third by the score in four games for Casa Grande and the fourth overall during this league run.
Casa Grande has won eighteen straight since losing its opener and no they all haven’t all been by one run. On Friday they travel to Ukiah who will probably have Jeff Piver waiting for them. He has pitched 51 innings and has given up five earned runs.
In the first meeting Casa Grande had its other 2-1 win.
Piver didn’t pitch yesterday against Cardinal Newman and the way Ridge Etchell pitched it was probably a good thing. Etchell struck out a season high 12 and gave up three hits in a 4-0 Cardinal Newman win.
Cardinal Newman is part of a wild race to see what order teams will finish behind Casa Grande. They are tied with Montgomery for second, three back of Casa Grande and one ahead of Maria Carrillo and Rancho Cotate with five games to go.
Montgomery stayed tied with Cardinal Newman with a 5-2 win over Santa Rosa. Anthony Prince raised his record going 5 2/3 innings and striking out 10. He has an ERA of 1.12 on the season and has 56 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings. Jake Hunt came in to get the last four outs,striking out two, to pick up his first save of the season.
It was a strange day in the NBL in that the only one run game was the Casa Grande win.
In the other game Maria Carrillo defeated Rancho Cotate 7-0. Those two teams are tied for fourth which is the final spot for the North Bay League post season tournament.
Alex Rennard pitched a three hitter and Clayton Pool led an 11 hit attack going 2 for 3 including a three run double in a five run third that broke the game open.
On Friday the headline game, besides the Casa Grande trip to Ukiah, is Montgomery at Rancho Cotate.
TODAY THE DAY?
With some help the SRJC baseball team could wrap up the Big 8 baseball race. At the very least they can clinch a tie when they host Diablo Valley at 2:30.
Diablo Valley is in last place in the Big 8 race with a 4-18 league record and is 11-23 overall. The theme of its season was set in the first game when they lost a 20 inning game to Solano 6-4.
They did play SRJC tough in a three game series in late March, losing by scores of 4-3, 4-1 and 4-2. The 4-3 game went 11 innings.
SRJC is 27-5-1 on the season and 18-4 in league play. They end the regular season with a home game against Cosumnes River on Saturday.
SRJC has a one game lead over Sierra who is at Modesto today. A SRJC win and Sierra loss wraps up a Big 8 championship.
SHOWDOWN DAY
First place is at stake this afternoon when No. 2 Rancho Cotate travels to No. 3 Maria Carrillo. Rancho Cotate at 7-1 has a half game lead with Maria Carrillo still having a rain out game to make up with Windsor. They play that game on Monday before playing a regularly schedule game with Windsor on Tuesday.
There is a logjam behind the two leaders. One loss separates Santa Rosa, Casa Grande, Windsor and Cardinal Newman. Casa Grande is at Windsor, while Santa Rosa goes to Montgomery and Cardinal Newman travels to Ukiah.
Meanwhile in the SCL softball race, No. 1 Petaluma figures to keep control of the SCL race when they host Elsie Allen. Since an opening season loss, Petaluma has a fifteen game winning streak and has outscored opponents in the SCL 61-1 and overall 109-18.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net