Windsor back on track after win over Angels

Ryan Payne grimaces after hurting himself on a play in the seventh inning. Because the injury left the Angels with only eight available players, they were forced to forfeit the remainder of the game.

By Matt Hanlon

Wine Country Baseball.com

Too few and stretched a little to thin. That pretty much sums up St. Helena’s struggles in Saturday afternoon’s game against the Windsor Wonders.

With only nine players at the game St. Helena wasn’t able to put up much of a fight to the Wonders, ultimately losing 9-3 in a seven inning game at Cardinal Newman High School. The Angels, who slipped under .500 by a game with the loss, were forced to forfeit the remaining innings after relief pitcher Ryan Payne got hurt fielding an infield single in the bottom of the seventh.

St. Helena (5-6) kept it close but the deal breaker came in the sixth inning. Windsor had back-to-back triples by Johnny Harmyk and Justin Kuhn to score two runs in the inning and then an inside-the-park homerun by Nick Borowicz scored two more.

That was all Windsor (8-3) would need for the victory.

Stuart Alexander was perfect threw three innings without allowing a base runner, and pitched five innings with two runs allowed on three hits and a pair of walks, striking out eight. Johnny Harmyk and Kyle Thomas each threw an inning plus.

The win was a big one for the Wonders who had two consecutive losses last week.

“We definitely are back on the right track,” Alexander said. “The playoff picture is looking good for us. I don’t know if we’re in for sure yet but I think we’re pretty much in. We’re just going to keep going out there and doing our thing.”

The Angels were not without opportunity in the loss. Trailing 9-2, they loaded the bases in the seventh but only scored one run, when Kory Langwell walked on four pitches to score Ryan Payne. The only other earned run for St. Helena came in the fifth inning when John Ahlers scored on a single by John Hays.