Time machine post: 2000 Vacaville at Vintage

Sometimes you remember a game because it reminds you of how strange of a game baseball truly is.

The 1999 Vintage High baseball team won a school-record 27 games but the next season entered the new century having lost many great contributors to that team, including but not limited to Steve Skinner, Lorin Brambila, Dal Wilson, Andrew Workman, Wes Frey and Derek Texdahl.

The Crushers entered their mid-March matcthup at home against the Vacaville Bulldogs for a Monticello Empire League contest with a 4-7 overall mark and 2-2 in MEL. Vacaville was 5-6 overall and 2-1 in MEL.

I had the chance to cover numerous high school baseball games in my 18-year career as a sports reporter. I have thought long and hard to find a stranger game than this one that I witnessed. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t.

Vintage won this contest 17-14. Yes, that is a baseball score. However, this was not a high-scoring game that had several lead changes.

The Crushers sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning to take a 6-0 lead highlighted by Cam Shick’s three-run homer and Mike Taylor’s two-run triple. Vintage scored seven runs in the third inning to take a 13-0 advantage highlighted by Taylor’s RBI triple, Kyle Wright’s RBI single and Shick’s RBI double.

Vintage was poised to end the game via the ten-run rule. Per California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rules, in baseball and softball the games are seven innings. If a team is leading by ten runs or more after five innings, the game is over.

The Bulldogs extended the game with seven runs in the top of the fifth, making it 13-7 Vintage highlighted by Jordan Brown’s two-run single, Phillip Cary’s RBI single and Adam Brearly’s RBI triple. Vintage got a run back in the bottom of the fifth to make it 14-7.

Vacaville did not go quietly scoring three in the sixth, making it 14-10 highlighted by Brown’s two-run triple.

Vintage answered with three in the bottom of the sixth highlighted by Shick’s two-run homer to take a 17-10 lead.

The Bulldogs, however, did not go quietly as Tony Sacca belted a grand slam to cut the lead to 17-14 in the top of the seventh with no outs. Vintage’s Ryan Payne struck out the next two batters before Josh Poque doubled. Vintage centerfielder Jason Cardwell appeared to catch the ball cleanly but the umpire ruled that the ball hit the fence before settling into his glove. Payne later retired Steve Luttrell to pop out to third baseman Jason Zudell for the final out.

How this game got me thinking:

• What I remember most is going into the fifth inning when Vintage led 13-0, “Man, I can get my interviews out of the way, go back to the office, file my story and be done quick.” For the record, my day would not have been done when filing my story as I had other production duties afterwards. Instead, my scorebook was a hot mess to total up stats. Also, instead of writing about a ho-hum 10-run rule win by Vintage, I wrote about how the Crushers nearly coughed up a 13-0 lead.

• Vintage High head coach Rich Anderson epitomizes what most consider the “old school” baseball approach as far as respecting the unwritten rules. One of which involves baserunning with a big lead such as not stealing bases with an eight-run lead, etc. After the game, by his own admission, that approach was costly as far as extending the game. Vintage was never in danger of losing but the fact that the Crushers went from having the game end in five innings to the tying run coming to the plate was reason enough to raise a red flag.

• When it comes to running up the score, I look at the process more so than the final score. Baseball though is much trickier, there is no clock to gauge what a safe lead is or is not. I have also seen a team win 25-0 in five innings but go out of their way not to win 55-0. Why? Because, if they were in scoring position, they would hold at third base on a base hot to the outfield or they would bypass taking an extra base on a wild pitch or passed ball.

• If a team can’t score 10 runs in a week, you take the station-to-station approach. However, if you know a team can score 10 runs in a game or even two innings, stealing bases with a big lead is fair game.