Sonomans aid Justin’s NCS run

A number of Sonomans were a part of Justin Siena’s baseball team that made a run at the MCAL championship and the NCS Division 4 title this spring. Justin lost to Arcata 6-1 in the NCS championship game.

Sonoman Jeremy Tayson, who is an assistant coach for the Braves, said the team finished 5-2 in the post-season that was “quite the turnaround from an uneven regular season.”

Leading on the way on the field was shortstop Colton Peterson who garnered first team all MCAL honors for the second straight season while hitting .385 with 35 hits. Peterson will be playing at Solano College next season. He was followed in the order by junior Austin Natuzzi who, Tayson said, came in to his own as a third baseman in the postseason and finished the season batting .347.

Senior Gavin Orr batted .444 with five RBIs in the post season to push his overall season average to .417. In the classroom, Orr was the leader of a team that earned scholastic team honors from the NCS. He’ll be attending Gonzaga University in the fall on academic scholarship.

Tayson said starting pitcher Sean McElroy and closer Sean Prasad, both juniors, were constants for the club all year long. McElroy won six games for the club, three in the post-season, including a 72-pitch complete game gem in the section semifinal. He finished the season with a 1.43 ERA. Prasad appeared in 16 games, saving four, and finished with an ERA of 2.59.

Sophomore middle infielders Asher Sutter and Toby Hilliard were called up after standout junior varsity seasons and will be looked at to make a future impact for the program that is graduating 10 seniors.

Another Sonoman, Garrett Roualdes, was also an assistant coach for the Braves.

Tayson, who is the Braves JV coach, was called up after leading the JVs to a third place finish. He was an assistant coach with the Sonoma Dragon JV teams that won SCL titles in 2007 and 2008, and with the 2008 Dragon NCS champions. He was the head coach of the 2011 Babe Ruth champion Lions and the “historic” 2012 15-year-old all-star team that would win only the second NorCal State championship in history, going on to win a game in the USA Pacific Southwest Regional Tournament in El Segundo that year.

Former Sonoma Dragon star Feh Lentini, who is playing for the Long Island Ducks in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, has been named to the league’s all-star team. Lentini leads the league in hits with 95 and is second in batting average hitting .320 with 51 runs, 133 total bases and 27 extra-base hits. The Ducks right fielder has also posted a .979 fielding average and has five assists.

Another former Dragon and Sonoma Stomper, Jayce Ray, has been bounced around this year by the Boston Red Sox. Last fall, Ray inked a contract with the BoSox and this spring, they sent him to the Greenville (South Carolina) Drive in A ball where he batted .378 in 12 games. He was promoted to the AA Portland Sea Dogs, but after appearing in only two games, he was sent back to Salem (Virginia) Red Sox in the Carolina League, a high A league, where he’s appeared in only three games.