Line Drives, Texas Leaguers and Cans of Corn

By Matt Burge, Piedmont Baseball Softball Foundation

PINTO (Age 7-8)

Piedmont Yankees 27, Orinda Crushers 6

J.D. Harrison led a strong offensive effort by the Yanks with two grand slams and a three-run triple. Ben Levinson scored five runs, and Milo Filler, Antonio Rivera, and Charlie Jones each scored four. Owen Richard and Nicco DeFazio made several nice plays in the field and Rivera, the catcher, caught a foul pop-up.  

MUSTANG (Age 9-10)

Piedmont Phillies 13, Orinda Red Barons 12

The Piedmont Phillies played an exciting home game against the Orinda Red Barons. Starter Aiden Dixon pitched a shutout first inning and Jared Tsukahara made his first solid appearance on the mound. Throughout the game the Phillies offense sizzled with strong batting by Robbie Alazraqui, Patrick Filler, Mikey Goody, Jono Tiao and Lane Bentley. Mickey Kraitchman made a stellar tag-out at third with a perfect throw from deep center by Dixon to thwart a would-be Orinda triple. Down 8 to 12 in the last inning, the Phillies rallied back four runs with no outs to tie it up and Jackson Oh came through with a walk-off single for the game winning RBI and fifth run scored to make the final score 13 to 12.

Piedmont Spartans 8, Giant Grizzlies 6

With each team missing a few members of their roster, both squads played well. Through an intermittent drizzle, the Spartans came out on top. The Giant Grizzlies were powered by home runs by Carvel Tefft and Mathias Haas, and with pitching by Lucas Scherman and Abe Barnes. The Spartans were led by strong pitching from Tommy Murphy and Will Kalmbach, Kevin Mead's fielding, and Henri Marchant's base running.

Piedmont Titans 7, Hornets 6

Titans triumphed through strong offense, pitching, and defense. James Sharman scored two with 2 singles, Grant Keating and John Roos singled and scored. Jonah Sanders had a 2-RBI single. With bases loaded in the 5th, Jonah Sanders stepped in and struck out the next two batters, and the three he faced in the 6th. Ryan Parkhurst had two strikeouts and no runs. Hunter Settlemeir made two great plays at shortstop. John Roos and Grant Keating also made infield plays.

Piedmont A's 11, Blue Devils 7

Mattias Haas had very solid pitching for 1 1/3 innings. Logan Vawter returned to the team and also pitched well. Patrick Conn made a good play at shortstop. Overall, teamwork was improving.

SOFTBALL

Piedmont Dragons 2, Hayward Wrecking Crew 19

After loading the bases twice in the first three innings, the Dragons were only able to push one run across each time. At the same time, the visiting Haywards’ bats came alive with timely big hits. For the Dragons, Nina Tafapolsky had two hits, a walk and scored a run. Maeve Gilbert also had two hits and an RBI. Dragons defense had some great plays including a nice putout by Cloe Tjogas at second. Rachel Elliot also caught a great game, had two hits, then made a spectacular catch in left field to end the game.

Piedmont Titans 7, Cheetos 11

The Titans staged a great late-game comeback but came up short vs. Cheetos. Julia Tucher and Nicole Shoptaugh led the offense with solid hits. Jenny Hosler and Addie Christianson led the defense with big catches and five Cheetos strikeouts. Katherine Gross-Whitaker scored in her first game with Titans.

Piedmont Purple Puppies 3, Piedmont Purple Panthers 2

It was a close Piedmont in-town rivalry with the Purple Panthers jumping out to a 2-0 lead helped by the strong play of sisters Peyton and Parker Morell and nice pitching by Hayden Wolfers. The Purple Puppies rallied back to score three on solid hitting by Joyce Stern, Caroline Collins and Ruby Trost-Goldhammer to pull ahead.