Prep baseball: Noah Piersig powers Vintage past Casa Grande for program’s 1st Vine Valley league title

When the stakes were at their highest, Vintage’s Noah Piersig showed out.

The senior right-hander, with the league title on the line, had a vintage Noah Piersig performance on the mound Thursday, allowing just one run on one hit while striking out six as the Crushers beat Casa Grande 4-1.

The win marks the first time Vintage has won the league title in the Vine Valley Athletic League era and its first league title in general since 2016, when the Crushers were still in the Monticello Empire League.

“(Piersig) wanted it — I mean, he wanted the game on Thursday,” Vintage head coach Billy Smith said. “We knew we could wrap it up on Tuesday, and we threw in Charlie and Joe, and those two guys have been battling for us all year. Those two guys doing so well all year helped Noah, and helped our whole team believe that we could do this. I’m so proud of all of our pitchers.”

Vintage (14-9, 10-2) got the runs going from the jump. Dario Freschi (2-for-4, two RBIs) led off the game with a single, and after two passed balls saw him advance to third, Ian Fernandez drove him home while reaching first on an error.

The Gauchos would answer in the bottom of the first, when Jeffrey Rice, who was hit by a pitch, stole second and then advanced to third on a grounder.

Stanford signee Austin Steeves then hit a sacrifice fly to left, enough to score Rice and tie the game.

The Crushers came right back in the top of the second. After Kai Gulliksen and Lucas Henry singled, Freschi delivered yet again, with a two-run single to center that gave Vintage a two-run cushion.

Both Piersig and Casa’s Danny Mercado (complete game, four runs, four hits, seven strikeouts) settled down for the next couple of innings, with Casa’s next best chance coming in the bottom of the fifth.

With two outs and nobody on, Gauchos catcher JT Summers roped a double to right-center field that hit the outfield fence. Casa (16-7, 8-4) couldn’t cash in, as Luke Bell lined out to short to end the inning.

“You’re not going to win many games when you get one hit and score one run,” Casa Grande head coach Pete Sikora said. “I think all season long, our Achilles' heel has been our offense, and we’re trying to do everything we can to unlock that. Congratulations to Vintage, their guy threw great, but we just didn’t get the production you need to win league.”

Vintage got one more run in the top of the sixth, when Miles Tenscher scored James Burgess on a single. In the bottom of the seventh, Piersig struck out two and got a fly-out to end it and make the Crushers VVAL champions for the first time in program history.

You can reach Staff Writer Kienan O’Doherty at 415-887-8650 or kienan.odoherty@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @kodoherty22.