Baccala's two-hit shutout, defense stymie GV

Pitching and defense two ingredients which will win you alot of baseball games played a major role Tuesday night in the Sierra Foothills Little League's All-Star team's opening night performance in the District 11 major division tournament.Parlaying a nifty two-hit shutout mound performance from Avery Baccala with some sparkling defense in the field, the SFLL majors pulled off a stunning 2-0 first round win over Grass Valley.Playing at Nevada City's Pioneer Park, the SFLL squad put up solo runs in the second and fourth innings and then used Baccala's standout mound effort to stymie the favored Grass Valley squad."It was Avery's game," said SFLL manager Chuck Wright following the exciting victory. "He really threw well tonight and our defense came through when they had too."The win advances the SFLL squad to tonight's 7:30 p.m. winner's bracket game against the winner of last ight's game between Penn Valley and Nevada City.Baccala, a hard throwing southpaw, allowed just two hits in the game, a third inning infield single and a solid shot to center in the fifth inning. He fanned 11 batters, walked only one and allowed just one Grass Valley batter to reach third base.He was also supported by a pair of timely twin killings in the field, one coming on a nifty 4-6-3 second inning double play which included second baseman Tommy Baldoni, shortstop Michael Kelderman and first baseman Tommy Johnson.Johnson also proved to be involved in another heads up play in the fourth inning when he stymied another potential threat by tagging out a Grass Valley runner who turned the wrong way after over running first base."The defense was really strong up the middle and Tommy made some stops at first base," Wright added.SFLL broke open the scoreless game in the second inning.Baccala started things off by beating out an infield hit before Kelderman followed with a base on balls to place runners at first and second.Mike Moore then worked the Grass Valley pitcher to a 3-2 count bfore lining a single to right that filled the bases.Grass Valley then made a pitching change and after a strikeout, Johnson worked the relief hurler for a walk sending Baccala home for a 1-0 advantage.The SFLL squad, however, blew a chance for a big inning by hitting into two force outs at the plate to end the frame.In the top of the fourth, Austin Brown started things off by reaching first after being hit by a pitch.After Roger Lillie was safe on a fielder's choice, both runners advanced on an errant Grass Valley throw that sailed into centerfield and allowed Brown to come around and score for a 2-0 advantage.In the fifth, SFLL threatened again when Thomas Campbell led off with a single and Kelderman followed with another hit but the Grass Valley pitcher fanned two Colfax batters to end the uprising.Grass Valley had its leadoff batter reach first base in the bottom of the fifth but Baccala reached back and fanned the next three batters.Three outs away from the win, Baccala whiffed the leadoff batter in the bottom of the sixth but a hit batsman gave the Nevada County team life.Grass Valley's next batter then hit a ball to Baldoni at second who fired to Kelderman at second for the second out of the inning.Baccala then induced the next Grass Valley hitter to ground out to Johnson unassisted at first base to seal the game.