Though one does not normally view baseball as an emotion-driven sport, especially in the regular season, I remember a game where the opposite was true.
While the Justin-Siena (Napa) High baseball team did not engage in dogpiling on the mound or dousing its head coach, Allen Rossi, with water, one could easily tell the elation of the Braves 9-8 win over the Vanden (Travis Air Force Base) Vikings. This game was more emotion-driven than many football games I covered in my 18-year career.
Setting the stage: Rossi took over for Steve Meyer before the 1999 season. The Braves made the CIF Sac Joaquin Section Div. IV playoffs in 1989 but had not returned since that time. Justin went 17-9 in Rossi’s first season, returning to the postseason only to lose 3-1 to Mesa Verde (Sacramento) in the first round. The back-story to the matchup against Vanden is that before the 1999 season began, Rossi asked every one of his players their goals. Many said, “beat St. Helena.”
At the time, St. Helena and Justin had an intense rivalry that resonated in most every sport. Rossi, however, scoffed at the idea of beating the Saints because he had bigger visions from the program, such as winning Superior California Athletic League and SJS Div. IV titles. To that point, Rossi wanted to turn the Braves attention to Vanden and St. Patrick’s (Vallejo) because those clubs were the dominant ones in the SCAL.
Justin and Vanden would meet in Napa for the first of three matchups. The winner would get an early leg up in the SCAL race.
Thumbnail sketch of the game: The term “heavyweight fight” is often used loosely. This game acted the part with Justin relief pitcher Steven Pauls and catcher Rick Carpenter delivering the final blow.
Justin led 9-5 entering the seventh inning before the Vikings cut the lead to 9-7 on consecutive RBI singles by David Colip and Doug Farnham against Braves reliever Matt Hamilton. Vanden then loaded the bases with no outs on Eric Dakin’s single. Pauls uncorked a wild pitch that bounced about 10 feet away from Carpenter. At that distance, most runners from third base are not going to try to score, especially with no outs. Tim Sutherland, who was pinch-running for Colip, broke for the plate and tried a head-first slide. Carpenter recovered and tagged out Sutherland with authority.
Farnham scored on a wild pitch, making it 9-8. Pauls then struck out Chris Grimm and induced Jason Dean to foul out to Carpenter to end the contest.
The irony was that Justin looked poised to make this game a blowout when taking a 5-1 lead in the fourth inning on the strength of Steve Andres and Eduardo Borrego RBI singles. Carpenter added an RBI double and bases-loaded walk. Ron Duvall also walked with the bases drunk.
The Vikings scored two runs to make it 5-3 before Carpenter’s RBI groundout to score A.J. Paniagua made it 6-3 Braves. Vanden cut the lead to 6-4 on Ruben Moreno’s RBI double. Justin then widened the advantage to 9-4 with a three-run fifth inning. The rally started with two outs and no one on base. Paniagua and Borrego each had RBI singles while Andres followed with an RBI double.
On the mound, starting pitcher Jon Foreman weaved his way out of trouble for 5 ⅓ innings with five strikeouts. The Braves, who were known for outstanding defense, had to overcome four errors which led to four unearned runs.
Another reason why Carpenter’s tag with authority still stands out to this day is because the Braves’ catcher was a throwback. I know that term gets used loosely. I covered players that were far more talented than Carpenter but few had the intangibles he had. If there was an All-Madden high school baseball team, he would be on it. Carpenter had everything from the eye-black to the lamb-chop sideburns. He never shied away from getting dirty by blocking pitches in the dirt or blocking the plate.
What it meant: The two teams met two more times. In the next meeting at Vanden, the Vikings handed the Braves their only loss of the season, 10-9 after Justin led 9-3. In the third meeting at Justin, the Braves beat Vanden 10-0 in six innings via the 10-rule rule with Andres hitting a walkoff grand-slam.
Rossi continued to coach until 2006 before resigning to care for his wife, who had been injured in an automobile accident. The Braves would appear in five consecutive NCS title games, winning three straight from 2003-2005 including an undefeated ‘05 campaign. Justin reached the ‘02 and ‘06 title games before falling to St. Bernard (Eureka) and John Swett (Crockett) respectively.
Scott Wright took over as the Braves coach from 2007-2012. Justin was successful on some level in going 76-58-2 including an NCS D-IV runner-up finish in 2007 under Wright but filling Rossi’s shoes is a tall order. Wright was dismissed after the 2011 season. Rossi returned in 2012, guiding Justin to the NCS D-IV semifinals followed by consecutive section titles in 2014-2015. In 2012-2013, the Braves immediately returned to prominence only to lose in the NCS D-IV semifinals.
Rossi decided to resign after compiling an overall record of 252-72 at Justin-Siena after the 2015 campaign.
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