Yuba duo nets state birth

The Yuba College men's doubles team of Shawn Aldrich and Daniel Henke qualified for the state junior college tennis tournament on Thursday following two victories at the NorCal Tournament at Mission College in Santa Rosa.

"The good thing is that this is my eighth year as coach and only two others have made it to the state tournament," Yuba coach Josh Prager said.

Henke and Aldrich, ranked eighth entering the NorCal tournament, defeated an unranked team from DeAnza, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 before topping No. 9 Chabot in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.

With the two victories, Aldrich and Henke advanced to play No. 3 Santa Rosa today in the NorCal quarterfinals.

Only the top eight teams from Northern and Southern California gain entry into the state tournament at El Camino College on May 8.

BASEBALL

Napa Valley 5, Yuba 4

The 49ers saw a 3-0 lead through six innings slip away as they dropped a Bay Valley Conference contest on the road.

"It was a heart-breaking loss," Yuba pitching coach Erick Burns said.

Yuba (19-23, 13-14) was cruising behind Nick Gauldin, who was making a rare start after missing a good portion of the season on the mound with a shoulder injury. Gauldin pitched well into the seventh inning, when Napa tied the game with three runs.

The 49ers regained the lead in the eighth, 4-3, when Javier Solis singled, advanced on a sacrifice and scored on a base hit from Adrian Perez.

Napa then rallied in the bottom of the ninth for the win.

A ground ball through the infield gave Napa one base runner and an error put ru ners at first and second. Napa then tried to bunt both runners over and with the 49ers playing with the infield back, Yuba didn't have a play and Napa loaded the bases.

The next Napa batter slapped a hit up the middle, but Yuba second baseman Joey Gonzalez made a diving play to knock the ball down and keep it in the infield. He nearly threw the lead runner out at the plate, but the Napa runner was safe to tie the game.

After Frank Chavez struck out the next batter, but then Napa got the winning run on a fluke play.

With the infield still playing off the bags, the next Napa batter hit back to the mound. Chavez went to go for the out at first, but the 49er first baseman was not in position to make the play and the winning run scored.

"It was a tough way to lose," Burns said.

Ryan Williams went 3-for-4 with a double, Solis and Perez both went 2-for-4 with a double, and Travis Mraz and Ed Ryan also smacked a two-bagger.

Yuba concludes its season when it hosts Napa at 1 p.m. Saturday at Gary Engleken Field.