Ex-Indian spells relief as Broncos upset No. 18 Mustangs

By Marty James

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Thursday in the Napa Valley:

Redshirt freshman Jason Westerberg of Napa earned his first collegiate win Tuesday night, throwing 42⁄3 scoreless innings of relief as host Santa Clara University beat No. 18 Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, 8-5, in a nonconference game at Stephen Schott Stadium.

Westerberg (1-1), a 2007 Napa High graduate, gave up four hits, walked just one and tied his season high with six strikeouts.

He has a 5.64 ERA with 11 walks, 25 strikeouts in 301⁄3 innings. He’s appeared in 15 games with two starts.

The win was the fourth in a row for Santa Clara and was the Broncos’ first victory over a nationally ranked opponent this season.

Westerberg received all-Monticello Empire League pitching honors as a senior, compiling a 6-2 record and 1.70 ERA with 62 strikeouts in 57 innings. He also registered six shutouts.

Matt Leonard and Mark DeVincenzi, both former Justin-Siena standouts, are pitchers on the Cal Poly staff.

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St. Mary’s College began a five-game homestand Tuesday with Michael Gastelum of St. Helena driving in two runs as the Gaels downed visiting UC Davis, 9-4, in a nonconference baseball game at Louis Guisto Field in Moraga.

Gastelum was 1-for-4 and had seven assists at second base.

Gastelum’s two-run single up the middle in the bottom of the sixth inning gave St. Mary’s a three-run lead.

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Playing only a few miles away from his home at Green Valley, Justin-Siena graduate Jimmy Cacho turned in his third top-10 finish of the college golf season Tuesday as Santa Clara University tied for fifth place at the 2009 West Coast Conference Championships at Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo.

Cacho, a junior, tied for eighth individually, shooting rounds of 73, 69 and 73 for a 1-under-par 215 total.

San Francisco won the team title and Greg Moss of Loyola Marymount was the individual medalist, finishing at 7-under par 209 with rounds of 67, 68 and 74.

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Cal State Northridge’s softball team will honor Micah Putnam, a Justin-Siena graduate who plays second base, on its Senior Day, April 26.

The game against UC Riverside that day closes out the Matadors’ 2009 home season.

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Third baseman Brett Wallace is batting .261 with two home runs and eight RBIs through six games for the Springfield (Mo.) Cardinals, the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Wallace, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in last year’s major league draft, starred locally at Justin-Siena and was a two-time Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year for Arizona State.

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Jack Canavesio will return as head football coach in the fall for Fairfield High.

After replacing Carlos Goni just three weeks into the 2008 season, Canavesio led the Falcons to a spot in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

“We started to get the program going in the right direction again,” Canavesio, a longtime assistant coach, told the Fairfield Daily Republic.

The Falcons return quarterback Tra’Mayne Bondurant, who threw for more than 1,000 yards, and running back Alex Hubbard, who had 450 yards and about 1,500 receiving yards.

“We have a pretty good little nucleus coming back to help start things off right again,” said Canavesio.

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

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