Dragons get bounce-back win

Host American Canyon Tuesday, Maria Carrillo Saturday|

The Sonoma Valley High baseball Dragons split a pair of games Friday and Saturday, losing to Vintage 5-4 on Friday, but beating Tamalpais 4-1 on Saturday.

Friday, at Vintage, the Crushers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on an error and two singles.

The Dragons loaded the bases in the second inning when Jeremy Mackling was safe on an error, Logan Mak singled, and after Tyler Garrett bounced out to first, Anthony Costanza walked. But the Dragons couldn’t push a run across.

Vintage got two more in the bottom of the second on a single, a fielder’s choice that didn’t result in an out, and another single. Vintage got another run in the bottom of the third on a double and a single and the Dragons were down 5-0.

The Crushers again threatened in the bottom of the fifth when they got runners on second and third as the result of Sonoma errors. But Mackling, who started for the Dragons, shut the door on Vintage.

The Dragons rallied in the top of the sixth as they pushed four runs across.

Kole Morgan, who walked three times, drew a walk, Anthony Tommasi doubled him to third, and Morgan scored on a passed ball. Mackling reached on catcher’s interference, Mak singled driving in Tommasi, Garrett singled, Costanza singled in Mak, and Garrett scored on a wild pitch.

And the Dragons had cut the margin to 5-4.

Mackling retired the Crushers in order in the bottom of the sixth. But the Dragon went down in order in the top of the seventh, falling 5-4.

“We’re still beating ourselves,” said Dragon Coach Ian Slaney. “We’re giving free runs away.”

But he was happy the way the Dragons narrowed the gap to a single run.

“I love the way we fought back,” he said.

Slaney has put together a tough non-conference schedule. “We want to play the best,” he said. “We want to hit our stride when we start conference play.”

“Jeremy (Mackling) battled and didn’t let a couple of errors rattle him,” Slaney continued. “Anthony (Tommasi) broke out of a slump and Anthony Costanza played a great game at second and got us a two-out hit in the sixth.”

Saturday night against Tamalpais, Brendan Hogan only gave up one run in 6-2/3-innings before hitting his pitch limit. Patrick Schneider came in and for the last out leaving the bases loaded and sending the Dragons home with a 4-1 win.

“We got a big two-out, two-strike hit from Jack Boydell scoring our first run, then took advantage of a couple errors scoring three more runs,” Slaney said. “Logan (Mak) caught a great game and Jeremy (Mackling) had five putouts in center field including a diving catch.”

The split gives the Dragons a 3-4 record.

Sonoma hosts American Canyon at 6:30 p.m. today, Tuesday, and then hosts Maria Carrillo at 7 p.m. Saturday.

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