Petaluma, Windsor high schools to vie for Rabinovitz baseball tournament title

It'll be Petaluma against Windsor in Thursday's championship baseball game of the 22nd annual A.L. Rabinovitz Tournament. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. at Montgomery High.

Both the Trojans and the Jaguars won two games on Wednesday to earn the right to play for the title.

Petaluma began the day taking care of previously unbeaten Chico 5-0 and then defeated Ukiah 6-4.

Meanwhile, Windsor downed Piner 8-2 and finished off the day by handling Montgomery 7-3.

The Rabinovitz brings out the best in Petaluma. The school will be trying to win its second championship in three years, In 2015 the Trojans made it to the final but lost to Analy.

Connor Richardson was the hero for Petaluma on Wednesday. The junior had five hits in seven at bats and pitched into the fifth inning of the second game. He also had five RBIs.

Against Chico, Richardson was 3-for-3 but his biggest hit of the day came against Ukiah. In the fourth inning, he hit a bases-loaded triple to put the Trojans up 4-2. Porter Slate, Drake Paretti and Luke Wheless were on base.

“Richardson hit line drives all day,” coach Paul Cochrun said. “He wasn't trying to do too much, just make solid contact and hit the ball up the middle.”

In the win over Chico, Dan Marzo pitched a complete game and struck out six. He got the only run he would need in the first inning. The run came home after Tyler Williams' ball was misplayed in the infield.

“I thought our pitching both games was very, very good,” Cochrun said. “Our defense was solid and so was our hitting. It was an excellent day.”

Petaluma (4-4) banged out 15 hits in the two games and committed two errors.

The Windsor players also came ready to swing the bats. The Jaguars had 14 hits against Piner pitching and 11 in the Montgomery game.

“We started the day just happy to be playing,” coach Corey Sunday said. “Because of the rain, we hadn't played in two weeks. We were all having cabin fever.”

The Jaguars put one run on the scoreboard in the first inning against Piner and then scored four in the fourth and three in the fifth.

Tanner Kane and Sam Penning came up with the key hits in the fourth, and Max Brown and Patrick Tapin had the big hits in the fifth.

Penning was in midseason form, striking out nine and pitching a complete game.

Against Montgomery, the Jaguars led 4-3 before scoring three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Penning's single to left field knocked in two. Kane and Mat Silva also had hits in the inning.

Windsor starter Travis Broadhead went six innings. Kane finished up.

“It was Broadhead's first start of the season,” Sunday said. “He did fine. He threw strikes and got experience.

“After getting rained out three times the last two weeks, we got to play 14 innings and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Now we're looking forward to playing for the championship.”

In other games Thursday:

Third place: Montgomery vs. Ukiah, 1 p.m. at Montgomery.

Consolation: Piner vs. Chico, 10:30 a.m. at Montgomery.

Seventh place: Sonoma Academy vs. Northgate, 2 p.m. at Doyle Park.