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Missed opportunities, wild pitches spell disaster for Legion squad 

In a game filled with seeing-eye groundballs and Texas-League bloopers, it only took one big blow for the Danville Black Sox to pull a game out against Berkeley Legion on Sunday at San Pablo Park. 

For six innings, neither team had a single extra-base hit. Berkeley had touched Danville starter Adam Brisentine for eight singles, resulting in five runs, and Berkeley High rising sophomore Walker Toma had limited the visitors to just five singles and four runs, not to mention driving in two runs to help his own cause. But while seemingly every break had been going Berkeley’s way early, the late innings belonged to the Black Sox. 

It looked as if Toma would put Danville away, as he struck out the first two batters of the seventh. But a sudden spurt of wildness resulted in a walk for Jack Harris, only the second issued by Toma. That brought to the plate left fielder Shane Buschini, who was hitless on the day. But Buschini came through with a ringing triple to right-center, scoring Harris to knot the score at 5-5. Toma narrowly avoided further harm when the next Danville hitter, cleanup man Moose Worswick, hit a shot right at Berkeley second baseman Chris Wilson, who took the ball off of his chest but recovered in time to get Worswick at first to preserve the tie. 

The momentum swung back to Berkeley in the bottom half of the inning, as Bennie Goldenberg drew a leadoff walk. Toma, little brother to Berkeley High cleanup hitter Matt Toma, followed with a perfect hit-and-run single through the vacant second base hole, his third hit of the day. Jack MckSweeney dropped a nice sacrifice bunt down the third base line, and Worswick tried unsuccessfully to nail Goldenberg at third and everyone was safe. With the bases loaded and no outs, all Berkeley needed to do was hit a flyball or get a grounder through the drawn-in Danville infield. But they could only manage two strikeouts sandwiched around a pop foul, and the game headed to extra innings. 

Having thrown seven innings, Toma moved to third base as Jason Nealy came in to pitch the eighth. But Nealy was very wild, hitting Mike Bloom with his first pitch and walking the next batter on four pitches. A wild pitch moved the runners up before Nealy struck out shortstop Scott Nielson, and two more wild pitches cleared the bases. One out later, Nealy walked nine-hitter Ben Heyna and wild-pitched him to second. George Tucker hit a grounder into the hole, and Berkeley shortstop Jason Moore threw late the third trying to get Heyna. Nealy threw yet another wild pitch, scoring Heyna, and Harris knocked a double to left, Danville’s first hit of the inning, to plate Tucker. After another walk, Worswick popped out to Toma, ending the painful inning. Berkeley couldn’t muster the energy to answer the bizarre rally in the bottom of the inning, ending the game at 9-5 in Danville’s favor.