YC soars past RV

Yuba City High hurler Michael Lowden delivered a big-time performance to open a three-game series against River Valley on Tuesday, crushing any speculative talk about a rivalry between the cross-town schools.

"We're not quite there yet," said River Valley coach Todd Artist, paying respect to Yuba City's program. "We just want to be able to compete for the playoffs. Yuba City is a very good team."

Lowden struck out six batters, walked one and allowed just five hits through six innings to lead the Honkers past River Valley 12-2 on the road.

"We had a couple of things we wanted to do today. We wanted him to get ahead of the majority of the batters he faced, and of the 24 he faced, he got ahead of 17," Yuba City coach Jim Stassi said. "He pitched very well today."

With two games remaining in the regular season for the Honkers (22-2, 12-1), Stassi is maintaining his focus on the Falcons (6-18, 3-10).

"This is a cross-town rivalry. These kids all know each other, so I don't think anyone is looking past these guys," Stassi said. "They (the Falcons) could have cut the lead in half in the fourth inning."

After a pair of Honkers' strikeouts to begin the game, Yuba City's Max Stassi belted a home run to left-center field. Stassi finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored, while teammate Zach Walden went 3-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored.

The Honkers added one more run in the top of the first after back-to-back singles by Aaron Crouch and James Haymore. Haymore finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two doubles.

River Valley battled back in the bottom of the first after Jared Davit led off with a single and Brad Kent drove him home on a sacrifice fly. Kent led the team from the plate, going 1-for-1 with an RBI and scoring the other run for River Valley — in the fourth. Kent scored off an RBI double hit by Josh Hudson.

But as far as offensive production went, that was all River Valley could muster against Lowden.

Lowden heated up as the game wore on. Five of his strikeouts came in the final three innings, including in the fifth, when he struck out the side in order.

"He really had his fastball working on the inside of the plate," coach Stassi said.

Yuba City scored two more runs in the second and two more runs in the third to take a commanding 6-1 lead.

Walden drove in Jake Stassi with a single to right-center and Justin Lamb hit in Walden on a sacrifice fly in the second. Brandon Pope reached on an error to lead off the third, Walden bunt-singled him over and Kevin Noall smashed a two-RBI triple to cap off the scoring.

Jake Stassi and Walden each hit singles in the fifth and were both driven in on a single by Lamb. Lamb finished with four RBIs on the day.

Yuba City batted around in the sixth inning to score four more runs and to put the mercy-rule in effect.

Every Yuba City batter either reached base or recorded an RBI in the final inning.

Yuba City will host River Valley on Thursday, before the two teams meet in their season finale at River Valley on Friday.

Contact sports reporter Bryan DeMain at bdemain@appealdemocrat.com or at 749-4796.