Sometimes you remember a team clinching a league championship in stirring fashion. Starting a rally with two outs and nobody on base is about as captivating as one gets. In 1999, the Vintage (Napa, CA) High baseball team had a successful season of historic proportions. It was the kind of team you talk about more than a decade later.
The Crushers defeated Will C. Wood (Vacaville, CA) 7-5 on the way to winning a school-record 27 games. The win came with two regular season games remaining and clinched the Monticello Empire League, its third in five years time.
Setting the stage: Though Vintage had players in this era that went on to make a splash at the college and professional level such as Mike Neu, this era of Crusher baseball was defined by having a team full of grinders that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
Though the term chemistry gets thrown around freely and is often viewed as overrated in baseball, this Crusher team had that quality which was as big of a reason as any why they reached the heights they attained.
Add those qualities with pitching, hitting and defense and you have a special combination. The leader of this team was shortstop Steve Skinner. I have never seen a high school shortstop double-clutch throws to first base that still routinely beat the runners. The lineup also included Derek Texdahl, Dal Wilson, Brian Massey, J.R. Roberts, Duke Rasmussen, Lorin Brambila, and Jared Kimball. On the pitching side, there was Wilson, Wes Frey, Andrew Workman and Tom Pridemore.
What stood out about this season was the race for the MEL title that took place between Vintage and the Fairfield Falcons. The Crushers were humble and hard-working bunch. The Falcons were brash and cocky.
Thumbnail sketch of the game: Vintage trailed 5-4 going into the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs. Kimball reached on an error and Massey hammered a triple to straightaway centerfield. Massey slid into third with head-first, getting a face full of dirt in the process. Brambila followed with a walk. Skinner gave the Crushers the lead (6-5) with an RBI single to score Massey and Brambila later scored on a wild-pitch.
What stands out to me about this rally is that it started with two outs and no one on base. Those rallies can suck the life out of an opponent.
Despite the rally, Vintage still had to get three more outs in the top of the seventh. That half of the inning started restlessly for the Crushers. Wood’s Jimmy Loveday started with a leadoff walk against Frey. With Workman warming up in the bullpen, Crushers head coach Rich Anderson made a trip to the mound.
Though Workman was Vintage’s closer, Anderson opted to stick with Frey. Anderson’s reason for sticking with Frey was because he had only thrown 71 pitches before Loveday’s at-bat. Frey followed by inducing a groundball that Brambila nearly turned into a double-play. Frey then followed by inducing a 4-unassisted line-drive double-play to Brambila.
The game started about as inauspiciously as you could get for Frey, who gave up a three-run homer to Wood’s Mitch Lauer in the bottom of the first. Vintage fought back to make it a 3-2 game after three innings on RBI single by Skinner and Steve Tanner.
What it meant: Despite winning the MEL title, Vintage’s stint in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I playoffs was short-lived, ending after three games. Fairfield, meanwhile, went on to win the SJS D-I title. Though Vintage High baseball has had pockets of success, none have come close to the 1999 version. That team was blessed with quality talent but also great intangibles.
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