Taylor enjoying big year for Menlo College baseball

By MARTY JAMES, Executive Sports Editor

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Tuesday in the Napa Valley:

Former Vintage High School and Napa Valley College player Mike Taylor is having an historic season for the Menlo College baseball team.

Taylor, who is in his last collegiate year after spending 2005 at Missouri Valley, has the third-highest single-season batting average (.410) in Oaks history and is tied for sixth with seven home runs.

He’s on pace to crack the top 10 single-season lists for at-bats, hits and RBIs. He leads Menlo in batting average, appearances, hits, doubles, homers, RBIs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and sacrifice flies, and has spent time at four different positions.

Taylor has started 19 games and is 32-for-78 with 13 runs, six doubles and 26 RBIs. He has a .756 slugging percentage.

Menlo is 10-13 overall.

Stephanie Raymond recently finished her final club season of volleyball at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Raymond, a Napa High graduate, was named to the All-Northern California Collegiate Volleyball League First Team as a setter for the second year in a row; last year she was the league MVP.

The Cal Poly club team finished tied for third. UC Davis, Chico State, Sacramento State, Sonoma State, Santa Clara, San Francisco State, Saint Mary’s and Stanford also play in the league.

Raymond has played organized volleyball for the last 10 years. She graduated in March and will be working for Kathryn Hall Vineyards as the assistant hospitality manager.

Brandon Alves, who pitched at Vintage and Napa Valley College, has a 2-0 record and 4.85 ERA in seven appearances for the New Mexico Highlands University baseball team, which is 15-13 overall, 8-4 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Also playing for NMHU is Michael Zaidel and Nick Toscani, who are both from Napa.

Napa golfer John Lawson, Jr. was second in a ReMax Long Drive Championship local qualifier in Brentwood with a drive of 294 yards, and will advance to the district level in Mesquite, Nev., in August.

Lawson, 23, picked up two new sponsors in Kent Sports and Stulz, both of which are golf companies.

Lawson graduated from Napa High and UC Davis.

Playing in their first tournament of the AAU girls basketball season, the Napa Renegades’ 14-and-under team took second place in the Petaluma Shootout Tournament over the weekend.

After losing their opening game to Marin Strictly Hoops, the Renegades regrouped and beat NorCal Hoops in overtime (42-37) and North Bay Petaluma (42-35).

All-Tournament player Maria O’Byrne led the Renegades in scoring (23 points) and rebounding (25), and was followed by Noelle Roldan (17 points), Shelby Singer (14), Sarah Zuniga (14) and Gina Solis (11). Marie Eberwin, Maggie Wessell, Solis and Zuniga played well defensively.

Olivia Barker, Bailee Carter, Shannon Rankin and Kelly Williams also play for the Napa team.

Justin-Siena’s baseball team, which is off to a 3-1 start, is ranked No. 1 in Cal-Hi Sports’ Redwood Empire poll.

Natalie Slavonia’s last-second shot lifted the Napa Renegades’ 10-and-under team to a 29-28 win over the North Bay Chicks and to a fifth-place finish in a girls basketball tournament in Santa Rosa over the weekend. Michelle Deblauw had the assist on the play and Slavonia earned All-Tournament honors.

Emily Dolan, Vendella Aguayo, Haley Creman, Madison Long, Madison Vallerga, Olivia Henderson, Illiana Keith, Mackenzie Mills and Kelsi Maday are also on the team.

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.

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