Santa Rosa quiets Angels’ bats

By Matt Hanlon

Wine Country Baseball.com

Just a few days after a disappointing loss that scarred the once perfect Santa Rosa Giants record, the team returned to true form once again.

Santa Rosa’s combined pitching staff of Casey Hillman, Luis Matamoros and Greg Pease combined kept the St. Helena’s bats quiet, holding the Angels (5-3) to just one run and four hits in the Giants’ 6-1 victory Saturday at Cardinal Newman Field.

Hillman was credited with the win after throwing four innings, allowing one run, three hits and a walk. The Angels struggled at the plate, at one time Hillman and Matamoros combined to retire 13 straight batters until Steve O’Dell’s single in the seventh.

Santa Rosa scored in the first on an error when Nick Green came home on a two-out ground ball that squirted past second baseman Ken Cook but that run was answered the next inning on a sacrifice fly by Ted Kearns that scored Mike Morganti.

The game remained tied at 1-1 until the fourth inning when Alex Borgo hit one deep over the left field fence. Two batters later Mike Caparale doubled and he scored on Nick McGinnis’ RBI triple.

The Giants (8-1) wouldn’t need any more offense than that, although they would have been hard pressed to do so. The Angels’ Mike Cassady entered the game with two outs and two on in the fifth and struck out the first batter he faced.

The Giants scored two runs in the final four innings but both came off errors. Cassady pitched 4 2/3 innings total and struck out four, walked no one and allowed only two hits.

Santa Rosa’s first loss on the season came earlier in the week when the Windsor Wonders narrowly defeated the Giants, 4-2.