Oakville takes down the Owls

By Matt Hanlon

Wine Country Baseball.com

The inaugural season of Wine Country Baseball has been a trying one for the Healdsburgh Owls, who have been plagued with a struggling defense and pitching staff. On a chilly summer night in Napa the Owls showed flickers of promise against the Oakville Aces, but the end result was no different.

The Owls (0-8) rallied from behind early in the game but weren’t able to keep Oakville at bay, ultimately succumbing to a 16-5 eight-inning loss to the Aces (5-3) on Friday night at Napa Valley College.

After jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning, Oakville began to relax. A little too much it seemed, as the Owls returned fire with two runs of their own an inning later.

“The Aces had to work for this one,” relief pitcher Conrad Hernandez told teammates after the game.

Oakville worked indeed, regaining the lead in the third inning and never looking back. The Aces strung together a four-run inning in the fourth, a two-run inning in the seventh and added seven runs in the eighth, just for good measure.

The Aces’ starting pitcher Fred Valencia earned the win, throwing six innings and striking out seven.

Oakville’s offense was certainly well distributed in the win. Matt Siebel was 2-for-3 and scored three runs, Jeremy Vargas was 1-for-4 with five RBIs, Bret Williams finished 1-for-2 with a pair of RBIs and Ty Eckhart went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Ryan Surina was the mastermind behind the Owls’ offense, with three of the team’s five hits, an RBI and two runs. Josh Cimino was 1-for-3 with two RBIs.