On Thursday, March 13, Archie Williams boys’ varsity baseball (1-5-0) faced off against the Novato High School Hornets (4-3-0) at home, losing the tough battle 1-5. The Falcons looked to clinch a victory after losing their first face-off against the Hornets earlier in the week. The game ended after seven innings, leaving the Falcons frustrated but looking forward.

The first inning opened with sophomore pitcher Kingston Weinberg forcing the Hornets’ batter towards three quick outs, bringing the Falcons up to bat. However, they couldn’t find a similar level of success in the bottom of the inning and returned to the outfield without any runs. 

At the top of the second inning, Kingston came out strong again, managing to keep the Hornets at bay despite several threatening hits and heckling from Novato’s dugout. After a few minutes of back-and-forth with the Hornets’ sole running player advancing toward second base, Kingston thwarted a mad-dash attempt to make it home, ending the Hornets’ time at bat. 

“Kingston Weinberg is only a sophomore, he’s pitching on varsity. For him to come out to have a strong start against San Marin last week, then come out to have another strong start against a good Novato team, that’s really promising to see out of a sophomore. It makes me really excited for the future years to come, just knowing that I have a guy I’m gonna kind of have in my arsenal for a really long time,” said Archie Williams’ boys varsity baseball coach Tyler Weeks.

Junior batter August Block opened at the bottom of the second inning, but the Hornets’ formidable pitcher prevented him from making any hits, eventually sending him away from the bat. The Falcons continued struggling to make a promising hit, ending the inning without any contact. 

Novato had a strong start in the third inning, reaching first and second base despite two catches in the outfield stunting their progression. With several runners on base, a long hit allowed two Hornets to dash home, bringing the score to 0-2 before the bottom half.

The bottom half of the third inning brought junior Joey Altman up to bat. A successful hit sent Joey to first base, gaining the Falcons’ first ground, though they couldn’t get any solid hits on the ball, keeping him firmly in place. 

The top of the fourth inning arrived, and the Falcons shut down many of Novato’s attempts, though one ground ball afforded them a free run. 

“I think our pitching was much better. In the away game, [Novato] kind of out-hit us a little bit, and in this one, our pitching was better, and all their runs came off one hit. I mean, [the game had] a very changeable outcome,” said senior catcher Miki Accomazzo.

Junior pitcher Jake Barnes started at bat in the bottom half of the fourth inning, making a hit but not getting to first base. Ultimately, the fifth followed similarly to the Falcons’ past four at-bats, yielding two balls that did a 180, but no hits nor any gained ground, while the Hornets also stayed relatively consistent.

“[While playing Novato], I was just thinking, we gotta stay up throughout the game. We were down 3-0 in the middle, but we just had to stay motivated. Couldn’t get too down on ourselves,” said senior first baseman Mason Thongnopneua.

The top half of the fifth inning yielded little results, but the bottom of the fifth inning saw senior batter Arlo Maury get to first following a strong, low ball. As another batter settled on first base and Arlo progressed to second, the Falcons became louder and more emboldened, cheering their players into the end of the inning. 

At the beginning of the sixth inning, the Hornets hit a hard home run, taking the score to 0-4. Junior pitcher Wyatt Koenig stepped onto the mound, finding success, and, with the help of the Falcons’ diligent outfield, kept the Hornets at bay. However, the bottom of the inning ended unceremoniously without any movement from the Falcons’ batting squad. 

“We had 16 strikeouts today and 24 total at-bats. When [in] two out of every three at-bats, you’re striking out, you can’t really do much offensively…Kingston did a really good job keeping us in the game today and battling, but when we’re only producing like that on offense, it’s really hard to start something,” Weeks said.

The seventh inning saw a rapid double for the Hornets’ pitcher, then a strong second hit from the following batter, securing a twin double and bringing the score to 0-5, before a concluding out ended the Hornets’ time at bat. 

In the bottom of the seventh, a well-hit home run from August put the Falcons on the scoreboard, bringing the score to 1-5. Still, Archie Williams couldn’t secure any more runs, ending the game after seven innings.

“Novato is known to have good young arms on the mound, but we also were supposed to have a relatively good hitting lineup this year…[Our result today] is not really what you like to see when you look down at the stat sheet,” Weeks said.

The Falcons play next at Redwood Tuesday, March 23, at 4:30 p.m. Despite the difficult loss, they’re optimistic that their future games will yield better results and confident that they’ll bounce back, ready for playoffs.

“Things should get better, we kind of got the gauntlet for the first three weeks. Yeah, we’ve [played] San Marin, Novato, and Redwood,” Miki said. “[But in the next weeks,] I think we’ve got Terra Linda [which] should be easier, so we should start getting back to it.”