MIDDLETOWN — Rob Woodcock”s best pitch is the curve, not that he had to throw it much on Wednesday as the Marin Catholic Wildcats, wielders of the wooden bats, knocked off the Middletown Mustangs 7-1 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV baseball playoffs at Wes Martin Field.
Woodcock, a hard-throwing junior left-hander, overpowered Middletown”s hitters much of the game with his fastball and change-up, occasionally mixing in a curve to record nine strikeouts in the five shutout innings he worked.
“He does have a very good curve but he didn”t throw it much today,” Marin Catholic coach Mike Firenzi said.
“He threw it when he needed it,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said. “He located his pitches well.”
Woodcock and reliever Al Gelardi combined on a one-hitter. That one Middletown hit — in fact, the only ball the Mustangs hit out of the infield all day long — was a Dane Larson two-out single in the bottom of the second. Daniel Sallee tried to score from second base on the play but center fielder Conor Murphy made a strong throw to the plate to nail Sallee, a big play at the time with the Wildcats holding a 2-0 lead.
Murphy”s bat also figured prominently in the early innings. The Wildcats” leadoff, Murphy staked his team to a 1-0 lead just two pitches into the game by driving a Dylan Galusha fastball over the center field fence for a home run.
“That was a nice way to start the game,” Firenzi said.
“They led off the game with a home run, like they were kind of sending us a message,” Tucker said.
Marin Catholic (15-11) added an unearned run in the top of the second for a 2-0 lead and it remained a tight contest until the top of the fifth when Galusha appeared to run out of gas. Tyler Scott led off with a single, Ian Lam was hit by a pitch and Jared Goff (3-for-3) bunted for a base hit to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Nate Kristoff followed by hitting a high popup into shallow right field that ticked off second baseman Eric Schenk”s glove for an error. A run scored on the play and Galusha was pulled at that point for reliever Ryan Johnson, who was greeted by an Alan Kunst bunt single that made it 4-0.
Chris Tewhill then hit a comebacker to Johnson that nearly resulted in a 1-2-3 double play, but Tewhill barely beat the throw down to first. With Anthony Firenzi standing at the plate, a wild pitch allowed another run to score and catcher John Hays” throwing error on the play resulted in another run scoring to make it 6-0.
Middletown closed to 6-1 with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth but Marin Catholic got that run right back on Tewhill”s RBI single in the seventh.
While both teams had their share of miscues in the field, the Mustangs did pick off two Marin Catholic runners at first base early in the game, one of them on a superb throw by catcher Hays to first baseman Dane Larson in the top of the third to nail Alan Kunst, who had singled moments earlier.
The Wildcats tied for fourth place in the Marin County Athletic League this season and didn”t have quite the year record-wise they were looking for, according to Firenzi, who said Gunner Sandberg”s injury in early March was a difficult obstacle to overcome. Sandberg, a junior pitcher and second baseman, was struck in the head by a line drive and nearly died.
“The ball dropped at his feet,” Firenzi said of the accident. “His head caught the full force of the impact.”
Only a few days later, the Wildcats stopped using aluminum bats, the safety of which has been called into question throughout the country because of the velocity at which baseballs are propelled from them in comparison to wooden bats. Marin Catholic now uses only wood bats and a handful of its opponents this season have switched to wood when playing the Wildcats in a show of support.
Middletown (15-10) used aluminum bats on Wednesday and Tucker said he was the target of some criticism on the Marin Independent Journal newspaper blog site. While sympathetic to Sandberg”s injury and with Marin Catholic”s decision to switch to wood bats, Tucker said if would have been foolhardy for the Mustangs to do so in a playoff game, especially since they have no experience swinging wood bats.
Firenzi said Tucker made the proper call.
“I would have done the same thing if I were him,” Firenzi said. “It”s not even a question. Had my team spent all season swinging aluminum, I wouldn”t switch now. That doesn”t make any sense.”
In fact, Firenzi said the Wildcats” move to wood has had some predictable results, as in many broken bats.
“We”ve gone through a bunch,” he said. “We were hitting off the batting machine one day and we broke five in a row.”
Switching to wood also means the Wildcats are learning to play more small ball. Three of their nine hits against Middletown were bunts.
“You”ve gotta play small ball with wood,” Tucker agreed.
While the Mustangs would have liked nothing better than to beat Marin Catholic and advance to the quarterfinals, Tucker said Middletown”s season was a resounding success on many different levels.
“This season was all about positives,” Tucker said. “There is nothing to dwell on in terms of the negative.”
Middletown bounced back from a 1-7 start to win 14 of its final 17. Along the way, the Mustangs ran the table in the North Central League I North, winning all eight of their games to secure an automatic playoff berth.
“We are losing a lot of seniors, but we have some talented juniors coming back,” Tucker said. “I think we”re going to be fine.”
Firenzi is in a pretty optimistic mood as well as his team prepares to play St. Joseph Notre Dame in the quarterfinals.
“We definitely feel like we can win the section,” Firenzi said.
Even better for the Wildcats is Sandberg”s continuing recovery.
“I expect to have him back next season,” Firenzi said.
Knock on wood.
