Prep baseball: Marin Academy dents San Domenico’s playoff plans
Marin Academy defeated rival San Domenico, 7-2, on Friday night at Albert Park, scuttling the Panthers’ hopes of locking down an automatic berth in the Bay Counties League playoffs.
“We wanted to get them again,” said San Domenico senior Alex Tavano, whose Panthers beat Marin Academy 8-6 on Tuesday. “That’s not the way we wanted tonight to go.”
San Domenico (6-9, 4-6) needed a win after Wednesday’s 17-0 loss to Stuart Hall to secure the fourth and final BCL playoff berth.
Stuart Hall’s 9-2 loss to Urban on Friday, paired with San Domenico’s loss to Marin Academy, leaves the Panthers and Knights tied and facing the possibility of a play-in game on Monday. The BCL has not yet released an official announcement about a play-in game.
Marin Academy (3-14, 2-8 BCL) was playing for respect and for fun in the regular-season finale, having already been eliminated from playoff contention.
“It’s fun to play San Domenico,” said Wildcats ace Ingo Solomon. “I know people on that team and it’s fun to play against them. We lost a close game to San Domenico earlier, but we were able to pull this out.”
Once Solomon got into his rhythm, he made fast work of the Panthers in a complete-game four-hitter with 14 strikeouts.
“I wanted to play at the level I expect from myself,” Solomon said. “I feel a responsibility to the team and to the whole school to play at the highest possible level and to show what this team is capable of doing.”
Both starting pitchers took a bit of a beating in the first two innings. With two outs and runners on third and second in the top of the first inning, the Wildcats’ Danny Puente drilled the ball straight back to the mound past Tavano’s head for an RBI-single.
The Panthers’ Hank Figueroa Lindelli led off the bottom of the inning with a single, and Oliver Bennett reached base on a fly ball that landed just behind the shortstop for an error. After a double steal, Figueroa scored from third on a long out by Tavano. Bennett then scored from third on a called balk for a 2-1 San Domenico lead.
Marin Academy responded with a pair of runs in the top of the second inning with two outs. Ian Rodriguez Garcia scored the tying run from second base on a misplayed ball in right field. Jacob Pinguelo scored the go-ahead run on an error at first base on a grounder by Solomon, then Reed Leidlein added an insurance run when he stole home plate.
That was enough for San Domenico coach Justin Hawkins, who was ejected after the second inning after arguing calls with the umpire. Senior Daphne Shlain took over as the Panthers’ first base coach for the rest of the game.
Tavano, who has committed to Skidmore College, gave up two hits, with three walks and five strikeouts in two innings of work, but the Panthers committed three errors behind him. Bennett threw three innings in middle relief and held the Wildcats to two hits, but walked six batters.
Griffin Hornbrook drew a walk off Bennett to load the bases in the top of the third and Brady Stewart’s grounder pushed the Wildcats’ lead to 5-2.
The Panthers had their opportunities to stage a rally. In the third inning, with Will Rothstein on third, Solomon closed the door with a third-out strike. The Panthers went down in order in the fourth and fifth innings, but still showed some life.
Tavano hit a leadoff singe in the bottom of the sixth inning, and worked his way around to third. Solomon struck out the next two batters and forced a groundout to strand Tavano at third base.
“One of the things I’m proudest of about this team is, even when the score was 5-2 or 7-2 in the last few innings, even when we had zero momentum, we were able to pick each other up,” Tavano said. “I think it matters that we fought the whole way through. I think that’s the most important thing that we didn’t go quiet. We didn’t just give up.”