The Sonoma Valley High baseball Dragons had two walk-off wins in a row – beating Piner 4-3 in a 9-inning contest Thursday, and beating Rancho Cotati by the identical score on Friday.
Friday, against Rancho Cotati, the Dragons trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the seventh but pulled a win out when sophomore Max Handron drove in two runs with a single.
Handron was one-for-two with two RBIs while senior Ethan Vitale was one-for-two with two runs scored. Junior Jeremy Mackling got the win for the Dragons.
Thursday, in a game against Piner that was twice postponed and moved to Arnold Field, the Dragons needed two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game and one in the bottom of the ninth, after almost three hours, for the win.
Senior Carson Snyder was the Dragon starting pitcher and it was feast or famine as he got strike-outs for 13 of the 15 outs in his five-inning stint, but he also walked six and hit a batter. In the first inning, he walked three but also struck out the side.
The Dragons got on the board in the bottom of the first when, with two outs, Snyder reached on an error, stole second and scored when senior Colton Mertens singled.
After that, it turned into a pitcher’s duel for the next four innings.
Piner got on the board in the top of the sixth when senior Eric Bailey came in and relieved Snyder. Three base hits, a walk and a hit batsman later, the Prospectors had a 3-1 lead.
In the top of the seventh, the Prospectors threatened but had two runners thrown out at the plate.
The Dragons didn’t get things together until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh. They used a single by junior Joe Perez, two errors, a walk and a hit batsman to tie the game. But they left the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Dragons loaded the bases with no outs, but couldn’t push the winning run across.
It was Piner’s turn in the top of the ninth after the first two batters had reached, senior Shane O’Malley, who came in to pitch the top of the eighth, struck out a batter and then walked the next man to load the bases. But he struck out the next batter and forced a batter to ground out to first to end the inning and the threat.
In the bottom of the ninth, Handron walked and took second on a passed ball. Snyder walked before Mertens lined a single into left-center driving in Handron for the 4-3 win.
Mertens was two-for-four with two RBIs. While he was catching, he also threw out a runner at first on a pickoff.
O’Malley got the win in relief.
The two wins gives the Dragons a 9-7 overall record and a 3-2 SCL mark.
The Dragons will host Healdsburg at 7 p.m. today, and will host Petaluma at 7 p.m. Friday.
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