Bruins ‘squeeze’ home victory against Wolves
Clutch hitting, sturdy pitching propel St. Patrick-St. Vincent to win
Monday’s baseball game had a little bit of everything — clutch hitting, pivotal pitching moments, three double plays and oh yeah … a suicide squeeze from the cleanup hitter.
St. Patrick-St. Vincent High needed every bit of that formula to dispose of visiting American Canyon, 7-5, on a sultry afternoon between the two nonleague foes.
The suicide squeeze came for the Bruins in the bottom of the sixth as cleanup man Mason Reynolds laid down a textbook bunt with Joseph Guttmann barreling home. When American Canyon couldn’t cleanly come up with the ball, Saul Barba alertly scored too.
Those two insurance runs were crucial as the Wolves (0-5) made it a one-run game in the top half of the inning and even brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the seventh before St. Pat’s closed it out.
“That was my idea,” said St. Pat’s head coach Brandon Brown about the squeeze. “In that situation, the game called for it. There was one out and our No. 4 hitter was up and the infield was back. (American Canyon) wasn’t expecting it and we snuck it by them.”
Barba played a big role in the game, knocking in three runs, including a two-out, two-run double in a three-run second inning.
American Canyon second baseman Dayvon Lucas lunged and nearly made the play, but the ball trickled out into the lip of the outfield, allowing Jaden Collins and Guttmann to score and Barba to grab second base.
I saw it off the tip of his glove, it went right out there and I saw the shortstop follow the ball,” Barba said. “I saw the open bag and took it.”
The Bruins got six solid innings from tall, lanky righty Davis Kennedy. The sophomore worked out of major jams almost every inning but three double plays and a sensational throw from center fielder Stefan Foley in the fifth inning helped limit other damage.
“We have a lot of confidence in him,” Brown said. “He’s only a sophomore but he’s one of our aces. We have two or three aces on this team. He has a bright future ahead of him.”
Kennedy might have gotten the key out of the game in the sixth when he induced Oregon State-bound Tyree Reed to bounce out with the bases loaded and the Bruins clinging to a one-run lead.
“Even with guys on base, I feel like I have a team behind me that can play defense,” Kennedy said. “I can just throw to a location, we get a ground ball and we can turn a double play.”
The Bruins led 5-0 after scoring two more in the fourth inning. Alan Cordova walked to lead off the inning, stole second, was wild pitched to third and scored on Barba’s fielder’s choice ground ball. Wyatt Smith followed with an RBI single to knock in Guttmann.
The Wolves (0-5) made it 5-3 with a three-run fifth. With one out, Lucas walked, Vinne Espejo singled and on Jordan Fisher’s comebacker, Kennedy threw the ball away, allowing Lucas to score. Two batters later, Kennedy walked Reed with the bases loaded to force in a run and Ryan Mitchell’s RBI single knocked in Fisher for the third run.
American Canyon closed to 5-4 in the sixth when Lucas singled and scored on Riley Carlos’ run-scoring single.
The suicide squeeze in the bottom of the sixth gave the Bruins a three-run cushion, but the Wolves threatened again in the seventh against Smith, the reliever. Mitchell was hit with a pitch to begin the inning and scored on Antonnio Lawson’s runscoring single.
Smith, however, struck out Lucas and Espejo to end the game with runners at first and second.
The play of the game for St. Pat’s came with no outs in the fifth when Lawson hit the ball in the gap, but Foley (the center fielder) tracked it down, relayed it to Barba (the second baseman), who threw a strike to Smith (the shortstop) just before Lawson slid into second.
Brown acknowledged that he has a strong defensive team that he can rely on.
“Our program is built on defense,” he said. “That’s the cornerstone of our program. Our bats may not be on every day but we want our defense to be on so our pitchers can trust them to work out of situations.”