Honkers watch two-run lead slip away late

SACRAMENTO — If Yuba City High is going to defend its Sac-Joaquin Section Div. III title, coach Jim Stassi said the Honkers must "do it the hard way now."

The Honkers (26-3) gave up three runs to Vanden in the top of the seventh to blow a 4-2 lead and fell 5-4 in the first game of a best-of-three series at Dan McAuliffe Ballpark.

Yuba City's Max Stassi reached on error to lead off the bottom half of the seventh. Aaron Crouch bunted him over to second and James Haymore hammered a deep fly ball to move him to third. But with two outs, Hunter Graves popped up to center field and the Honkers lost just their third game of the season.

"We didn't play our best game and they played better then us today," coach Stassi said. "There's no pressure on us. We won 26 baseball games, that was just our third loss of the season and on Wednesday we'll play our 30th game."

While the Honkers can be eliminated from the playoffs when they play the Vikings (18-6) on Wednesday at 4 p.m., Stassi reiterated that the pressure was not an issue.

"This is not a pressure situation," Stassi said. "It's just another game for us. We just didn't do the things we needed to do to win. Our situational hitting was a problem. We didn't get hits when we needed them."

The Honkers stranded eight baserunners and only managed five hits off Vanden's pitching tandem, starter Jesse Savage and reliever Adam Core.

Savage found trouble early on when he walked the first three batters to begin the game, and Yuba City picked up its first run after Crouch hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Jake Stassi from third. Justin Lamb scored from second on a wild pitch as the heads-up play gave Yuba City a quick 2-0 lead.

Max Stassi hit a solo home run in the third to give Yuba City a 3-0 lead. It was his 13th homer of the season.

Core relieved Savage in the fourth, and from there, the Honkers found it difficult to generate runs. Meanwhile, Vanden finally found a way to home plate.

Chad Hurst blasted a laser-shot solo home run to cut the score to 3-1. The inning could have gone worse after James Haymore lost a fly ball in the sun in right field, but Michael Lowden ended the fourth with a pair of strikeouts.

Vanden threatened again in the fifth, but left two runners on after Jake Stassi recorded an inning-ending strikeout in relief of Lowden. But the sixth and seventh innings didn't go his way.

After the Honkers stranded one runner in the fifth, they picked up an insurance run in the sixth when Brandon Pope roped a first-pitch double to lead off the inning and scored on a Zach Walden single.

However, the run wasn't enough.

Three of the first four batters for the Vikings belted doubles in the sixth, including Terrance Alston's, which scored Julienne Jones.

The double could have been more costly, but a wild pitch went Yuba City's way after Ricco Walker attempted to steal third and Max Stassi gunned him down.

Vanden left the bases loaded and a 4-2 deficit on the board headed into the final inning.

Jake Stassi struck out the lead-off hitter in the seventh, but a single by Hurst and a hit batter put two runners on for Jones, who came through for the Vikings.

Jones drilled a two-RBI double that got through left field and the Vikings tied the game.

Core then dribbled a grounder to first baseman Pope, who was forced to move to his right, flipping the ball to relief pitcher Graves, who had just entered the game for Yuba City. But the toss was off the mark, and a tough grounder ended up scoring Jones from second to give Vanden the lead.

Vanden's Jon Downer went 2-for-4, while Jones went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

Haymore led the Honkers from the plate, going 2-for-4.