Friday afternoon’s Vintage baseball games were emotional for all six coaches involved — four on the Crushers’ side and two in the Rodriguez dugout.

A little more than four years ago, the Crushers lost Fred Scaruffi, who had coached JV and varsity baseball for 16 years with current head varsity skipper Rich Anderson.

An emotional Anderson said that despite Friday’s 4-2 loss in their home-opener, “Scaroof” would have been happy just to see the “kids playing hard, being sportsmanlike and carrying themselves right.”

Vintage hosted a tournament in Scaruffi’s honor for the first three years after his passing. But due to new Sac-Joaquin Section rules, Anderson changed the memorial to a preseason game against the Mustangs.

Vintage varsity assistant coaches Brett Wedding and Mike Odell, along with JV head coach Cam Neal, played for Scaroof — as did Rodriguez head coach Jason Chatham and JV coach Derrick Texdahl.

“Our school and community lost a great man, but the young men in Napa, and especially the ones that play baseball at Vintage, lost something that is very rare today — a man that epitomized a work ethic, a sense of responsibility, and a humble nature that is sorely lacking in society today,” Anderson wrote in a column for the Register on Dec. 3, 2002.

“The young men at Vintage were blessed on a daily basis to be around a man that was a product of the Depression and a representative of a time gone by. He was a connection to the past and to a much different generation that just does not come across to teenagers in a history book.”

Scaruffi’s widow Karen was at Friday’s game to celebrate the life of her husband and the legacy he left with all those he touched. She said her husband was “all about baseball and the kids” and that he was his happiest when on the diamond.

She added that nine of the year’s 12 months were spent consumed with baseball and that it was only second to his family. Their son, Karl Gonsalves, was coached by Scaroof while he played JV baseball at Vintage.

“Fred was a rock and the personification of dignity,” Anderson added in his column. “Players realized that having pride in one’s work and avoiding the spotlight are respectable attributes. They came to understand that taking responsibility defines one’s manhood and trying to avoid it is not acceptable. Fred showed up humbly and ready to work every day simply because he loved it.”

After stranding two batters to start the game, Vintage played an outstanding short game to load the bases on three infield singles. The first was a blooper to shortstop and the final two were meant to be sacrifice bunts that turned into hits.

Anthony Bergman took a pitch which scored Thomas Lyall (1-for-3), and John Accardo (1-for-4) scored on a passed ball four pitches later to give the Crushers a 2-0 lead.

Jordan Long led the Crushers with two hits while T.J. Marquez singled.

The Mustangs tied the game with runs in the second and fifth innings. The first was from John Scholtens (1-for-3), who nailed an infield single, was pushed to second on an infield putout then went to third on a wild pitch. He was plated when Gene Nanney (1-for-2) singled to center field.

Javon Williams scored Rodriguez’s tying run when he took first base on an error then second on a passed ball. He scored on Geno Escalante’s (2-for-3) double to right-center field.

“The two things we did well were we played hard and competed,” Anderson said. “We’re going to play a lot of close games (this year). Rodriguez played cleaner than us.”

With one out in the top of the seventh inning, the Mustangs’ Mike Norris (3-for-4) sliced a double to right-center field and scored on a wild pitch. An out later, Escalante hammered a triple and reached home on a bobbled ball during the attempted throw to home.

“Right from the get-go these guys are committed,” said Anderson. “We’re really inexperienced. I still have to sometimes tell that that it’s more important to outscore the other team rather than outhit them. I think we’ll just grow as a team. We need to commit to the little things. If you’re throwing strikes, that’s the first step toward success.”

The Crushers’ Robin Groom took the loss in relief after pitching two innings and allowing two runs off three hits and one walk with one strikeout. Nate Azevedo started the game and pitched three scoreless innings, where he allowed four hits and two walks and hit one batter. Matt Bejar threw two innings and allowed just one hit while striking out four hitters. Bergman was on the mound for one inning and walked one and allowed a single.

“No. 1 is to find out who our pitchers are,” Anderson said about the team’s preseason priorities. “We’ll throw a lot of different guys. We really want to work on the small things and team defense. We can work on hitting later on.”

Vintage plays at Hogan on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., then returns home against Vanden on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.