Santa Rosa is Red, Santa Rosa is Blue, Both of These Teams to the Nationals too.
From Herb Dower:
SONORA, CA — First there was one and now there are two Santa Rosa fastpitch teams to worry about. Santa Rosa Fastpitch Blue and Santa Rosa Fastpitch Red posted a combined 10-1 record in last weekend’s Class C Sonora Tournament, with the Blue team winning the championship with a 4-1 win over Da Bruddah’s of Hayward on Sunday to cap a perfect 6-0 tournament run. It was the Blue team’s second win over their arch rivals from Hayward. In Saturday’s first game, veteran pitcher Jim Fleck turned in his strongest outing of the season in beating Da Bruddah’s 3-1.
The powerful hitting Santa Rosa team also beat North Bay 16-3 on Saturday and routed Merced 20-0 in a five-inning game on Sunday, at one point collecting 11 consecutive hits, capped by a grandslam home run by Carlos Gomez. Santa Rosa had to struggle to beat North Bay on Sunday, coming from behind to get the win that put them into the finals.
In the title game, losing pitcher Rich (Snake) Rivera issued a bases-loaded walk to Santa Rosa catcher Tom Dower in the second inning to give the Blue team a 1-0 lead, and pitcher Jeff Want nursed the lead until the sixth, when Da Bruddah’s tied the score. Santa Rosa bounced right back with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, with Casey Hillman hitting a solo home run to end the rally.
Brian Macler hit two home runs during the tourney, including a long drive high up into the trees beyond the 260-foot left-field fence, while Gomez was 5-for-5 in one game and a young newcomer, 19-year-old Cody Spaulding hit well over .600 in his debut. Nick and Dustin Green, Mark Young, Tom Dower and Danny Macler also had key hits. The new Santa Rosa Red team got solid pitching from Brandon Shearer, who had a 4-1 record. Santa Rosa opened with a 3-1 win but then had to overcome 8-1 deficits in its next two games to win 11-8 and 13-12 in 11 innings over Merced and Romie’s Angels on Saturday. They won their opener Sunday before being routed by Da Bruddah’s 14-4 to be eliminated. The Blue team, which finished fourth in last year’s Class C National Tournament in Killeen TX, will be back in the Nationals this year in Prescott, AZ, and the Red team will also be making the journey.
–Herb Dower