Makeshift Dragons hold off Yountville

Nik Gutierrez charges home on a single by Martin Macias. He was tagged out on the play. Photo by Matt Hanlon

By Matt Hanlon

Wine Country Baseball.com

After an 8-5 loss to Sebastopol the night before, there was a little sense of desperation when the Dragons went down 2-0 to Yountville in the third inning. But plagued with missing starters and players playing different positions, it just took a little while for the Dragons to get the hang of things.

Unfortunately for Yountville, it only took Rohnert Park until the fourth inning to get the hang of things.

The Dragons found their bats midway through the game and never looked back in an eventual 7-3 victory over the Yountville Robins at Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa on Saturday.

“I didn’t have a lot of my starters, so I had a lot of guys playing not normal positions,” coach Rene Torres said. “It took us a couple of innings to get into a groove. I think when you are playing a new position you think a lot about defense and you forget about batting.”

If that was the cause, then Rohnert Park’s Jarrod Dumont seemed to be the first to remember. He had a two-RBI single in the fourth to put the Dragons (2-4) on the board.

They scored four total in the inning off a combined three hits, a hit batsman, a walk and a dropped ball by Yountville left fielder Athen Putnam. The Dragons scored two more an inning later off two more hits, a walk and another Robins’ error.

The Dragons’ pitcher Dumont started for the first time this season, pitching eight innings allowing two runs on seven hits, three walks and two hit batsman.

Yountville (1-7) milked Dumont for two runs in the third after Dumont drilled Jeremy LaBranche and then two batters later hit Bo Johnson. LaBranche scored on a groundout by Mike Gastelum and then Johnson came home on a triple down the right field line by Billy Hamilton.

Those would end up being the only earned runs that Dumont would allow in the game. Dumont was one of many makeshift pieces in the Dragon’s defense that seemed to work on Saturday.

“We needed a win,” Torres said. “Dumont is normally a closer and he went eight strong.”