NBL baseball tournament: Maria Carrillo shuts down Montgomery

Andrew Vaughn and Cade Sheets combined on a four-hitter as Maria Carrillo defeated visiting Montgomery 6-1 to advance to the championship of the North Bay League Tournament.

In the other game of the four-team tourney, Casa Grande defeated Ukiah 9-4. The top-seeded Pumas will meet No. 2 Casa Grande at 4 p.m. Friday at Cardinal Newman for the tournament title.

Vaughn pitched five innings of scoreless ball and allowed four hits. The Montgomery run came in the seventh

The Vikings had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the first. They loaded the bases with none out but Vaughn responded by getting a strikeout and inducing a double play.

Aidan Nagle led all players with three hits. His single in the first knocked in two and got the Pumas rolling.

“We had very good pitching, timely hitting and quality defense,” coach Derek DeBenedetti said.

“The team’s playing well. We just want to continue keeping it simple and playing smart.”

Maria Carrillo improves to 17-8 and Montgomery’s record is 11-14.

CASA GRANDE 9, UKIAH 4

At Petaluma, Casa Grande banged out 14 hits to advance to the NBL championship game against top seed Maria Carrillo.

Five Gauchos finished with two hits apiece - Blake Berry, Spencer Torkelson, Quinton Gago, A.J. Miller and Dylan Moore.

“We had quality at-bats the entire game,” coach Paul Maytorena said. “Ukiah scored two in the top of the first and we came right back with two of our own in the bottom.”

The Gauchos (19-5) broke the game open in the second when they scored four runs and sent nine players to the plate. Miller, Moore, Gago and Stephen Proctor singled.

That was more than enough support for Chrs Joaquim. He went the first six innings to pick up the victory.

Morgan Edwards had two of the five hits for Ukiah (13-11).

In the Sonoma County League baseball tournament played at Arnold Field:

SONOMA VALLEY 2, ?PETALUMA 0

Carson Snyder tossed his second shutout of the season and the Dragons earned the right to play Analy in tonight’s championship game.

Snyder, who came into the game with a 1.56 earned run average, allowed three hits and struck out six.

Snyder got the only run he would need in the first. Ethan Vitale led off the game with a single and later in the inning scored on Will Lennon’s base hit.

Joe Petersen’s sacrifice fly in the fourth produced the second run.

The Dragons finished with eight hits. Vitale and Lennon accounted for two apiece.

Marzo, who was the losing pitcher, had one of the Trojans’ hits. Porter Slate and Tyler Williams collected the other two.

Petaluma is 16-9 while Sonoma Valley improves to 13-12.

In the semifinal round of the Sonoma County League softball tournament Wednesday:

SONOMA VALLEY 4, ?ANALY 0

After losing two games in the regular season by a combined score of 27-0, the Dragons turned the tables on the host Tigers.

“We knew we had to change things up to have a chance,” coach Dean Merrill said. “We moved around our defense, we were more aggressive at the plate and we used a pitcher Analy hadn’t seen this season. Plus, we played with passion.”

Sonoma Valley will now face Petaluma for the tourney title today. First pitch is 4 p.m. at Analy.

The Dragons (16-9) snapped the scoreless streak at the hands of Analy ace Saja Spearman-Weaver in the first inning when Maddie Lentini knocked in the run. Helped by a pair of errors, they tacked on three more in the fifth. Isabelle Hernandez, Lindsey Lee and Lentini had key hits.

Meanwhile, Analy (20-5) could muster only four hits against Sonoma pitcher Hayden Pearce. The closest the Tigers came to scoring was in the fourth inning when Mackenzie Evangelisti tripled with one out.

“Pearce usually plays first base or shortstop for us,” Merrill said. “She’s also a pitcher, but she’s so valuable in the infield, that’s where she plays most of the time.

“We decided to put her out there because Analy hadn’t seen her this season. She had great movement on the ball and did fantastic.”

The Sonoma hitters also had a different mindset.

“We told the girls to go after the first pitch if it was close,” Merrill said. “In the other two games, we weren’t aggressive on the first pitch and most of the time those pitches were strikes. It worked much better for us.”

Box scores / C7