The varsity baseball Jaguars made the most of a hiatus in the league schedule during spring break, logging three games in the annual A.L. Rabinovitz Memorial Tournament hosted by Montgomery High School on April 3-4.
Windsor opened the tourney on April 3 with a 10-1 rout over Piner, but finished with losses to Chico (5-4) and Northgate (10-1).
At press time the Jaguars (5-5, 1-2) were preparing to resume league action on April 9 against visiting Rancho Cotate, followed by a Wednesday, April 11 visit to Cardinal Newman (4 p.m.). Windsor will finish up a busy stretch when it hosts Montgomery this Friday, April 13 in a 4 p.m. start.
Jags take one of three
Windsor came out swinging heavy lumber in the April 3 Rabinovitz tourney opener against Piner, pounding out 12 hits to stake starting pitcher Cy Soltanizadeh to a big early lead. The hard-throwing junior tossed five innings of four-hit, one-run ball while fanning six before Carson Ramocinski came on to close it out with two scoreless innings in relief.
Top hitters for the Jags included Cameron Hayman (3 for 5, 2B, 2 runs, RBI), Will Matthews (2 for 3, 2 runs), Austin Cedeno (1 for 1), Tanner Tobon (1 for 3, run), Kevin Winter (1 for 4, 2 RBIs), Soltanizadeh (1 for 4, run), Ramocinski (1 for 3, 2 runs, RBI), Ian McGee (1 for 4) and Patrick Tappin (1 for 4, 2 runs).
The Jags sent starter Eric Begley (4.1 IP, 4 hits, 2 BBs, K) to the mound against Chico in the afternoon game, as Windsor went to the sixth up 4-3. The Jaguars couldn’t hold the lead, as the Panthers pushed across two runs in the seventh inning to walk off with a 5-4 win.
Also seeing mound duty for Windsor were Winter (1.2 IP, 4 hits, ER, 2 Ks) and Hayman (.2 IP, 2 hits, ER). Leading the hitting corps were Ramocinski (3 for 3), Tappin (2 for 4, run, 2 RBIs), McGee (2 for 3, run), Matthews (2 for 4, run), Hayman (1 for 3, run), Begley (1 for 3), Soltanizadeh (1 for 4, 2B, RBI) and Tobon (1 for 4).
“The boys came out on the first day and pounded out 25 hits in two games,” Jags coach Dave Avila said. “The Chico game was a heartbreaker – we pounded out 13 hits but couldn’t get the timely hit. In the end we couldn’t get through the heart of a very good Chico lineup again.”
The Jaguars squared off with a solid Northgate squad in the battle for third place on April 4, as the Broncos erased an early 1-0 deficit with four runs in the second en route to a 10-1 win.
“After scoring a run on three hits in the first, we managed only one other hit throughout the next six innings, Avila noted. “Their pitcher made adjustments and began controlling his change up that he was able to throw on any count and we were unable to make the necessary adjustments at the plate.”
Sotanizadeh raised his team-leading batting average to .382 with two hits in three trips, while other top hitters included Ramocinski (1 for 3, run) and Tappin (1 for 3). Logging pitching duty were Winter (4 IP, 6 hits, 5 ERs, 4 BBs) and Hayman (3 IP, 7 hits, 5 ERs, 3 BBs, 2 Ks).
Ramocinski was named to the all-tournament team after collecting five hits in three games.
