Photo Ohlen Alexander

The Orinda Spartans got in the win column on Saturday, twice, taking both ends of a doubleheader against the San Ramon Slammers on Saturday afternoon. In game one, the Spartans won a see-saw battle by the final score of 9-6. In the nightcap, the Spartans dominated their opponents and glided to a relatively easy 9-3 win. With the two victories, Orinda evened its league record at 2-2.

The Spartans' bats came alive on Saturday with the team pounding out a total of 25 hits in the two games, 13 in game one and 12 in game two. Danny Ritelli was one of the hitting stars, accounting for five hits. Ritelli went 3-for-3 in game one with two doubles and a single. He knocked in two runs and scored another. In game two, Ritelli went two for three with another double and one more RBI and run. The Slammers finally retired Ritelli in his last at-bat of the day, when he popped out to first base. Clayton Stehr also went 3-for-3 in game one and recorded a fourth hit in game two. Stehr scored all four times he reached base. Andrew Deaver had three total hits on the day with two RBIs and three runs scored. Ryan Anderson also had three hits, including an RBI double and a run scored.

The pitching was also outstanding, led by starter Ben Hoxie's strongest outing of the young season. Hoxie pitched three incredible innings, limiting San Ramon to just one run on two hits in the process. Ritelli finished the fourth inning for Hoxie and then pitched a strong fifth before yielding to closer Dylan Kronenberg who took the squad the rest of the way, pitching two shutout innings, without allowing a hit. He walked two batters. Clayton Haskell and Clayton Stehr made a number of strong plays from the left side of the infield and Will McConnell threw out a would-be base stealer in the sixth inning.

In the nightcap, Eric Nyman got the start and he did not disappoint. Nyman threw two shutout innings before tiring in the third and giving up two runs. McConnell came in to relieve Nyman and struck out the only batter he faced in that frame to end the further scoring threat. McConnell then went on to throw two more strong innings. Connor Jackson then earned the save, pitching the sixth and seventh innings and allowing only one run in the process. Tyler Larsen threw out a would-be base stealer of his own in the seventh inning to give Jackson and his teammates the lift they needed to finish the game strong.