Fujinami dominates, then goes off the rails in A’s loss to Angels

Jerry McDonalD BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

OAKLAND — For two innings, the debut of Athletics right-hander Shintaro Fujinami seemed too good to be true.

Which was exactly the case.

The Los Angeles Angels chased Fujnami with an 11-run third inning in a 13-1 win over the Athletics Saturday at the Coliseum before a crowd of 15,757.

Including two inherited runners that scored on long reliever Adam Oller, Fujinami finished giving up eight earned runs in 2 1/3 innings, with an ERA that will sit at 30.86 until his second start next Saturday.

“Could have been better, obviously, but I was glad to get on a big league mound,” Fujinami said through translator Issei Kamada. “But getting on a big league mound is not good enough and next time I’ll try to do better.”

Athletics manager Mark Kotsay chose to dwell on the first six outs rather than nine hitters that reached

Local

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Monday

Boys Golf

Castillo, Rodriguez win first MEL event

FAIRFIELD — Dylan Castillo fired a 3-overpar 75 Thursday and the Rodriguez High School boys golf team won the first Monticello Empire League tournament of the season by 42 strokes at Rancho Solano Golf Course.

Rodriguez topped Vacaville (515), Vanden (526), Will C. Wood (573) and Armijo (663). Fairfield did not have the necessary five golfers to post an official team score.

Castillo was one of seven golfers to break 100. He was followed by Ben Wilhite of Vacaville (79), Aidan Co of Vanden (82), Rohan Kamath of Vanden (87), Kyle Vidal of Rodriguez (87), Heath Bradford of Will C. Wood (91) and Quinn Strachen of Vacaville (92).

Giants

From Page B6 moment to admire the mammoth blast that he launched, which put San Francisco ahead 3-2, its first lead of the season, and ended Schmidt’s day. The towering shot landed at least a dozen rows up in the seats, 415 feet away, and followed a hard-hit double by Mike Yastrzemski down the right field line, one of a pair of two-baggers for Yastrzemski on Saturday.

Crawford, who accomplished a goal of playing in all 30 ballparks last season, has now homered in 25 of them. He finished with three RBIs, two runs scored and a triple away from the cycle, after singling and doubling to contribute to scoring rallies in the sixth and the ninth.

“It was a good day,” Crawford said with a smile.

“I guess it was my best game of the year so far.”

After the inflammation in his left knee popped up again during spring training, Crawford and the Giants were concerned it would be an ongoing issue this season. But, Crawford said, “it’s been feeling a lot better.”

“If we get Craw healthy and producing at the plate, it’s gonna be a really good season for us,” Kapler said.

“Those were the type of at-bats that we’ve seen from him at his best and on a pretty big stage here at Yankee Stadium.” base in the third before he came out to take the ball from his 28-year-old Japanese import.

“The first two innings I thought Fuji was great,” Kotsay said. “He dominated hitters with his fastball and his split. In the third, he walked (Luis) Renigfo on a 3-2 slider, and it seemed to spiral on him there.”

Given the season is two games old, teammates were eager to see more of Fujinami as he begins the season as the A’s Saturday starter.

“I mean, he was doing whatever

Softball Atayde’s gem helps Vaca softball win

VACAVILLE — Xochitl Atayde pitched a complete-game five-hitter with 13 strikeouts for the Vacaville High School softball team in a 6-2 nonleague win over visiting Dixon Friday.

Paige White was 2-for-4 at the plate for the Bulldogs. Jordan Munn, Tayler Eberhart and Aubrie Gibson all doubled. Vacaville improved to 5-1 overall.

Vacaville used a fourrun second inning and a two-run fifth en route to the victory. The Bulldogs have another non-league game at home Monday against Elk Grove at 4 p.m.

Track and Field Armijo High shines at recent meets

FAIRFIELD — Armijo High School’s track and field team split up to attend different meets last weekend and came away with some solid results.

The sprint team attended the Eddie Hart Invitational in Pittsburg, while the distance team he wanted out there,” shortstop Nick Allen said. “His splitter was really working. He was doing everything he needs to do. He does that and he’s going to be just fine.”

Catcher Shea Langeliers was philosophical and optimistic.

“Obviously today didn’t go how we wanted it to go, but I think the start of it showed what it could be, and it’s exciting,” Langeliers said. “Everybody knows he’s got really good stuff and he’s a really good pitcher. Sometimes baseball just gets the best of you. Today was one of those days.” attended the Dublin Distance Fiesta at Dublin High, according to a press release from the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District.

The contrast between the first two innings and the third was striking. Fujinami retired the first six hitters in order, striking out four. He threw only 23 pitches, 17 of them strikes. In the third, only half of his 32 pitches were strikes with five hits and three walks.

There seemed to be some regret that Fujinami, who has an assortment of pitches, didn’t simply stick with what was working.

At the Hart Invitational, the sprint team set a new school record in the 4x200-meter relay. The team consisted of Cierra Kinsey, Ani Kinsey, A’Jah Parks, and Sanai Wilson.They clocked a time of 1:48.20, surpassing the previous record by 0.6 seconds.

Armijo’s distance team all ran new personal bests, including sophomore, Favian Villa, who improved his time by 13 seconds, and senior, Yadira Chavez, who improved by 11 seconds.

Junior Lilian Luu’s posted the third-best mile time in school history at 5:23.

College

Solano baseball wins 2 vs. Contra Costa

ROCKVILLE —

The Solano Community College baseball team pounded visiting Contra Costa in a pair of games Friday, winning the first 16-2 and taking the nightcap 12-0.

The series finale Sat- urday, however, didn’t go the Falcons way in a 10-6 loss.

Joshua Petrill pitched a four-hitter over seven innings in the first game Friday and had six strikeouts for the Falcons. He was backed by 14 hits from the Solano offense that featured eight doubles and a triple.

Conner Ross went 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs. Julian Guerra was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Jaxson Bates finished 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.

Dylan Trammell pitched six strong innings for the Falcons in the second game Friday. He had a four-hitter with four strikeouts. Cooper Hack pitched an inning in relief. James Larson was the hitting star by going 2-for-4 at the plate with two doubles and five RBIs. Bates was 3-for-5 Saturday with a double and three RBIs. Miles Meadows and Larson had three hits apiece. Alex Gaela doubled.

Solano improved to 11-15 overall and 5-4 in the Bay Valley Conference. The Falcons open a three-game series at home Tuesday against Napa Valley.

Sound Bites

By Pam Amick Klawitter

Difficulty level: SILVER

Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 block. Use logic and process of elimination to solve the puzzle. The difficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest).