Carson Snyder came within four outs Wednesday of pitching his second no-hitter of the season as the Sonoma Valley High Dragons beat Petaluma 2-0 in the Sonoma County League Tournament.
Snyder, who threw a no-hitter against El Molino on March 29, said he was aware that he was throwing a no-hitter.
While he wasn’t giving up any hits, he did walk three and hit Petaluma’s leadoff batter – twice. Another reached on an error.
But with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, a Trojan batter hit a grounder up the middle for the first hit of the game.
“I left it up,” Snyder said. “And in the back of my mind, I knew it was going to be a hit.”
Snyder then gave up two more hits in the seventh before closing out the game.
“It was a shut-out,” he said. “And it was in the SCL tournament.”
Sonoma got all the runs Snyder would need in the first inning when Ethan Vitale led off the game with a base hit. Snyder helped himself by laying down a sacrifice bunt moving Vitale to second. MacLean Meyn walked and Will Lennon drove in Vitale with a single, giving the Dragons a tenuous 1-0 lead.
Petaluma threatened in the bottom of the first when Snyder hit their leadoff batter, but after a sacrifice bunt and an infield out, he was sitting on third – and that’s where he stayed.
In the second, Dylan Samaniego walked and ended up on third when Joe Peterson laid down a sacrifice bunt and Petaluma failed to cover third. But the Dragons couldn’t score.
The Dragons got their second run in the fourth inning when Colton Mertens singled, moved to second on a sacrifice, and moved to third on a wild pitch.
Peterson hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Mertens. With two outs, Sonoma, looking to make it a big inning, loaded the bases on a double by Nico DeTorres, a single by Vitale and a catcher’s interference that put Snyder on first. But an infield out ended the threat. Petaluma finally touched Snyder for its first hit with two outs in the sixth.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Trojans got singles sandwiched between two strikeouts that left them with men on first and second with two outs. The next batter hit a hard grounder to Vitale at short, who stepped on second for the force ending the game.
The win put the Dragons into Thursday night’s championship game against Analy, with results not available at press time.
Email bill at bill.hoban@sonomanews.com
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