Sports

Lights, Camera ... Novato Goes Prime Time in Baseball

After surprising Albany in the first round of NCS play, the Hornets earn a night game at Sonoma Valley, an atmosphere that should be quite familiar after Thursday's lighted practice.

No, that wasn’t a movie being filmed under the portable lights on the campus Thursday night.

But come to think of it, the school’s baseball team has authored the beginnings of a pretty interesting script.

In preparation for a night game at Sonoma Valley on Friday, Novato coach imported lights for Thursday’s practice and directed a dress rehearsal for the North Coast Section quarterfinal matchup.

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“We haven’t played under the lights all year,” Scheppler explained. “I wanted to create an atmosphere change, so we rented some lights. Just to see the ball come out of his hand differently.

So after a lengthy warmup, Scheppler had his club running at full speed at 7 p.m. – the same time Friday’s game between the 12th-seeded Hornets and fourth-seeded Sonoma Valley is scheduled to start.

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The Hornets weren’t supposed to be playing Friday, but you’d never have known they were the lower seed in Wednesday’s 8-1 shellacking at fifth-seeded Albany.

Everything went right for the visitors. pitched a gem, the Novato defense played flawlessly behind him and the Hornets took advantage of their new toys – metal bats – to pound out 13 hits against the traditionally strong East Bay team.

“It was good to get after them, to change it up and get out of our league,” Scheppler said after Novato won its NCS opener for the third consecutive year.

“The bats made a difference for us. We were able to push the outfield back a little bit and hit the gaps. We hit a couple of balls off the fence.

“It was exciting to see a whole new ballpark, a new team and use the bats. The combination of everything got the boys excited.”

The quarterfinal matchup is a rematch of a non-league game earlier this season at Novato. In a game in which Sonoma Valley agreed to use wood bats, the Hornets were beaten 5-0 by Dragons ace Sam Alton.

Alton pitched a complete game in Sonoma Valley’s 3-2 first-round win over Eureka, so likely the Hornets will see someone else Friday night.

Novato will counter with , who can only hope to duplicate Barron’s impressive effort Wednesday.

Matt Peachey had the big hit of the game, a bases-clearing double in a game-breaking, five-run fifth inning, highlighting a game Scheppler labeled “eye-opening.”

“The younger players were commenting you get a feel for the sense of urgency,” he said of the NCS experience. “They kind of liked it.

“This is our third year in a row we’ve won that first-round game. All three times we’ve upset people. We’re OK with being the lower seed. We always like our chances with our pitching staff and the way we play defense.”


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