Napa holds off Windsor, 7-5

Trevor Fox came on in relief and was nothing short of spectacular, throwing six innnigs and striking out 14 in the Knights’ 7-5 victory over Windsor.

By Matt Hanlon

Wine Country Baseball.com

Many of the Windsor Wonders got to Cardinal Newman High School before 8 a.m. Saturday for a pregame batting practice. Windsor, coming off of a loss to Petaluma earlier in the week, was badly in need of a turnaround win over Napa.

But the Knights had other ideas. Windsor made a few costly misakes, and Napa capitalized.

With a narrow 5-4 lead over the Wonders in the fifth inning, the Knights scored two insurance runs on a pair of singles and a couple of wild pitches. That inning would be the difference as Knights were able to hold off the Wonders in the final innings of a hard-fought 7-5 victory on Saturday morning at CNHS.

Trevor Fox, who came on in relief of starter Jason Zudell in the fourth inning, earned pitched six solid innings to earn the win. Fox was kryptonite to the Wonders’ bats, allowing only one run, and three hits while striking out 14 of the 25 batters he faced.

Ricky Del Zombo was 2-4 with two triples and three RBIs while Robbie Steen, David Heimbigner and Chris Heimbigner all had two-hit games for Napa.

Windsor (7-3) scored in the first inning after Nick Borowicz and Derek Farrell drew back-to-back, leadoff walks. Three batters later, Ben Monticello drove them in with the first of his singles.

The Knights (4-6) countered quickly, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the first. Del Zombo drove home Kagen Davis with a triple to right field and scored on the next pitch, when Matt Brown drove a double into left field.

Napa scored again in the third inning to take the lead. Farrell scored on an error and Kevin Cramer crossed the plate on a groundout by Kyle Thomas.

Steen walked for Windsor in the bottom of the third to start off a one-out rally that would eventually retie the game. Steen advanced to third on an error that helped Davis reach first and then both scored on another Zombo triple, this time to left field.

The Wonders took the lead in the fourth when Jason Zudell singled and then stole second and third. Zudell came home on an error by the pitcher in a pickoff attempt.

Unfortunately for the Wonders, batting practice didn’t seem to help them all too much thanks to Fox’s commanding performance.

Ben Monticello, who drove home three RBIs and finished 2-for-4 and Cramer who scored two runs, and batted 2-for-3 were the main suppliers of offense. Farrell, who had a double for the only other Windsor hit, was left stranded on third in the eighth inning.

 Napa’s Wayne Wirt flies out to right field in the eighth inning of Saturday’s game.