Windsor pushes record to 10-5 with five games left
By anyone’s definition, the 2021 campaign has been a successful one for the Jaguars, playing outstanding baseball while winning two thirds of their ballgames.
Windsor (10-5, 6-4) has shown it can hang with the best teams in the area, including the cream of the crop in the first season competing in the North Bay League Oak Division.
The Jags are coming off their busiest stretch of the spring in logging four games in a five-day period, coming away with a pair of wins.
“For a four-game week I’m not happy we split, but I’m not upset either,” Jag’s coach Dave Avila said. “We were in both losses until the end.”
The Jaguars opened the stretch on May 10 with a 9-3 non-league win over American Canyon, followed by an even split in a pair of NBL outings against Maria Carrillo. Windsor finished the string on Saturday with a wild, 11-5 loss in a non-league battle at Casa Grande.
The Jags will begin the final phase of the season when they host St. Vincent (May 20, 4 p.m.) and Santa Rosa (May 24, 4 p.m.) in a pair of non-league games and finish the NBL schedule with home (May 26, 4 p.m.) and away (May 28, 7 p.m.) dates with Ukiah. The team will wrap up the season on May 29 at home against Petaluma (4 p.m.).
Windsor logs win
The Jaguars were fresh off of a 9-3 win over American Canyon when they played host to Maria Carrillo on May 12, with right-hander Matt Kemper getting the start. The talented senior demonstrated why he’s among the top pitchers in the league, logging a complete-game, four-hit, seven-strikeout effort in his best performance of the season.
Windsor pushed across the only run of the game in the fourth inning when base-runner Josh Delatorre stole third and came home on a bad throw. It was all Kemper needed to close out a 1-0 shutout victory. Brett Neidlinger and Caden Towery accounted for the only hits for the Jags.
“I’ve told the boys we can play with anybody in this league when we throw strikes and play good defense,” Avilla said after the game. “And that’s exactly what we did today.”
It was more of the same two days later when the series moved to Maria Carrillo. Hard-throwing senior Gary Hall (6 IP, 7 hits, 4 ERs, 10 Ks) took the mound for Windsor, guiding the Jags into the sixth inning clinging to a 2-1 lead. But the Pumas would not be denied, pushing across three runs in the bottom of the frame to escape with a 4-2 win.
Pacing the Windsor hitting corps were emerging sophomore Elijah Hackathorn (1 for 3, 2B) and JoJo Soltanizadeh (1 for 3, 2B).
“Today we got solid pitching, but didn’t get timely hitting,” Avila noted. “Their pitcher did a great job of changing speeds and keeping the ball down.”
The Jags finished up the busy week on Saturday at Casa Grande, taking a 5-3 lead into the fifth inning when disaster struck. Windsor pitcher FJ Freenor was victimized by a questionably called check swing on an obvious strikeout, leading to a four-run rally and 9-5 Casa lead. The Gauchos tacked on three more for good measure in the sixth en route to an 11-5 victory.
Freenor (4 IP, 9 hits, 8 ERs, K) took the loss, while top hitters were Hackathorn (3 for 3, run, RBI), Carson Ramocinski (2 for 4, RBI), Delatorre (1 for 3, 2 runs), Neidlinger (1 for 4), Hall (1 for 4, run), Anthony Guzman (1 for 2, RBI) and Trent Matthews (2 RBIs).
