Wallace set for NCAA’s outdoor final

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Monday in the Napa Valley:

Lea Wallace’s next stop during the 2009 college track and field season is the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships.

Running for Cal State Sacramento, Wallace placed third in a personal best time of 2:06.97 in the  women’s 800-meter run at the NCAA West Regional Saturday in Eugene, Ore. The top five advance to nationals, June 10-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.

Wallace’s time placed her second in school history. The 2006 Vintage High School graduate was a three-time CIF state meet qualifier for the Crushers and transferred to Sacramento State from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. She is in her first year with the Hornets.

Wallace finished second in the first heat of the 800 Friday in a time of 2:07.77 at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

She came into the meet ranked fifth in the region after winning the Big Sky Conference championship. The Big Sky honored Wallace as one of the track athletes of the week for the week ending April 5. She was also named all-Conference after placing second in the 800 at the Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Championships in February.

At Cal Poly, she was the Big West Conference champion in the 800 as a freshman in 2007.

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Samantha Sciutto, a First-Team all-California Pacific Conference player in softball, was honored by Cal State East Bay of Hayward with the “Slugger” award and was the recipient of the team’s Scholar-Athlete Award.

The honors cap an outstanding freshman year for Sciutto, a Vintage High graduate who plays third base for the Pioneers. Sciutto led the Pioneers in home runs, RBIs, walks and on-base percentage.

She was a First-Team all-Napa County player for Vintage. She has also played in the Napa Valley Girls Fastpitch Association at Napa Kiwanis Park and for the California Tornadoes of Fairfield.

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Pitching dominated for the Napa Legion 13’s team at the recent USSSA Super NIT Tournament in Martinez.

Riding the arms of Mateo Fernandez, Reed Oster and Austin Abernathy, Napa reeled off three shutouts in a row en route to the championship game.

The pitching of Fernandez, who threw a no-hitter while striking out 11, and Abernathy, who threw a two-hitter in the semifinal game, highlighted the three consecutive scoreless games.

Napa’s pitchers proved to be stellar again in the championship game, but the Legion 13’s came up just short, losing 6-5 to the Martinez Hurricanes. Grant Wright and Scott Premo both pitched well in the title game for Napa.

The Napa 13’s is the entry level team in the Napa Legion program and consists of the following players: Tyler Whitehead, Michael Odell, Diano Pachote, Andrew Hinshaw, Jack Good, Stephen Santora, Sam Davison, Alex Rocha, Reed Oster, Ryan Imhoff, Scott Premo, Grant Wright, Mateo Fernandez, Kaleb Schnaible and Austin Abernathy.

Napa recently completed its regular season play, which consisted of 14 games, and has now moved into the tournament portion of its schedule. The USSSA Super NIT was the first of four tournaments the team will participate in this summer.

The Napa 13’s play on a transitional field of 80-foot bases and a 54-foot pitching distance in preparation for the move to the full-size diamond at age 14.

Mike Odell, a product of the Napa American Legion program, manages the Napa team and is assisted by Pete Santora, whose older son Mike, a recent Napa High graduate, plays for the Napa Legion 19’s.

The Napa 13’s season starts in February and goes through June. Tryouts for the 2009-10 season will be held in August or September.

Up next for Napa is the Elk Grove USSSA Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

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Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo lost its first two games in the NCAA Division I Tempe (Ariz.) Regional and was eliminated from the baseball playoffs.

Cal Poly lost Friday to Oral Roberts 13-3 and fell Saturday to Kent State 10-9 at Arizona State’s Packard Stadium.

Matt Leonard and Mark DeVincenzi, both Justin-Siena graduates, are on the Mustangs’ pitching staff. Cal Poly ends the 2009 season with a 37-21 record.

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Jesuit-Carmichael won the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I baseball title, beating St. Mary’s-Stockton in a best-of-three series by scores of 10-7 Friday and 10-4 Saturday at Sacramento City College.

Jesuit, the North representative, went 6-0 in the playoffs and finished the season with a 27-5 record. The title was the second in a row for the Marauders.

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St. Mary’s-Berkeley downed Salesian-Richmond 8-3 Saturday to win the CIF North Coast Section Division IV baseball championship at Alberts Field in San Rafael.

St. Mary’s (21-6 overall) advanced to the title game with a 6-2 victory over Justin-Siena in the semifinals.

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

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