Sonoma Valley suffers first two baseball losses in non-league play

Sonoma Valley’s varsity baseball team confronted some harsh realities last week, as their 3-0 record was dinged by two losses to a 4-2. A Wednesday, March 4, loss to San Rafael – the first Marin County team to beat the Dragons this year, and their first away game – was matched by a Saturday, March 7 loss to Analy.

But in between, on Friday, March 6, the Dragons rallied to defeat Ukiah in a three-hour game at Arnold Field. Ukiah and Sonoma pitchers combined to walk 17 batters and hit five batters.

Sonoma jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first after Riley Phelan reached on a dropped third strike, followed by walks to Anthony Tommasi and Gio Hernandez to load the bases. A passed ball on a 1-2 pitch to Dustin Peirce led to two runs scored, thanks to heads-up base-running, but the rally ended there.

Ukiah got one back in the top of the second, but did some real damage with a four-run third inning that put the Wildcats up 5-2.

After three and a half innings, Sonoma found itself down 6-2. The bottom half of the fourth saw just one hit, a single by Jayden Filippi, but four walks and a hit-by-pitch added up to a four-run rally. Ukiah got another in the fifth, but again Sonoma pulled off a two-run rally –once again on a single by Filippi followed by four straight walks to even the score, 7-7.

And that’s where it stayed as the game dragged on and the weather turned cold. While Ukiah got eight hits on the night off starter Jamie Pierce and reliever Joe Costanzo, the Dragons could only muster three hits off four Wildcat pitchers.

Then Ross Neles led off the bottom of the seventh being hit by a pitch from Ukiah’s Caleb Ford. After two quick outs, Phelan hit a grounder that the shortstop couldn’t handle, Neles advanced to second and Phelan was safe at first.

Then Tomassi walked to load the bases with two out. Hernandez drove a grounder to the third baseman, whose error led to Neles crossing the plate with the winning run.

In the March 4 loss to San Rafael, the Bulldogs scored all the runs they needed in the second inning, going 4-0 on five hits and chasing starter Costanzo from the game. The Dragons offense could manage only a single run in the sixth, and the final score was 6-1.

Saturday was also a disappointing outing for the Dragons as they met cross-county rival Analy from Sebastopol at Arnold Field in what turned out to be their first home loss of the season. The Dragons racked up eight hits as Filippi and Tommasi each managed two and Phelan walked twice, but the Tigers made their four hits count for that many runs as they scored a 4-3 victory.

The Dragons have two more games at Arnold Field this week, on Tuesday against Piner and Saturday, March 14, against Las Lomas. Both games start at 7 p.m.