Sports Briefs: Drummer perfect as San Rafael wins NCS opener

San Rafael High junior ace Thomara Drummer was perfect in the top-seeded Bulldogs’ 16-0 victory over No. 16 De Anza during Wednesday’s opening round of the North Coast Section Division III softball playoffs. Drummer struck out nine batters with no walks as she aced the minimum 15 batters.

San Rafael is scheduled to host No. 8 Sonoma Valley in the quarterfinals.

Wednesday was the second perfect game of the season for Drummer and her fifth no-hitter. She got solid support in the field, as senior Angel Amesa had nine putouts.

At the plate, Drummer was 2-for-3 and scored three runs. Gabby Rodriguez, who was 2-for-4 with a double, accounted for six San Rafael runs, with four RBIs and two runs scored. Freshman Jaela Brown had four RBIs and a run, while Sophia Everett doubled, tripled, scored twice and drove in two runs. Senior Cassidy Kaplan was was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI.

Prep baseball

Senior starter Josh Malik threw five shutout innings for the win as sixth-seeded St. Vincent de Paul cruised past No. 11 Clear Lake, 9-3, in Tuesday’s first round of the NCS D-V bracket. The san Rafael resident, who has committed to play baseball at the University of La Verne, struck out seven batters and held the Cardinals to three hits. At the plate, Malik doubled, drove in a run and scored. Senior Nico Antonini, also a San Rafael resident, and sophomore Will Hankins each had two hits for the Mustangs. Senior Jack Davis, a Marin County resident, had a hit and a run. Mustangs sophomore reliever Jack Mountanos threw one inning of one-hit ball. St. Vincent (14-11) is scheduled to play No. 3 University in Friday’s quarterfinals at Paul Goode Field in San Francisco.

Mountain biking

Tam High took home the Division I team victory and Redwood High’s Matthew Marotto won the varsity boys race in the 6 Sigma Slinger, the final race of the Redwood/Repack regular season, on Saturday at Lower Lake.

The NorCal Interscholastic Cycling League returns to 6 Sigma Winery this weekend, May 18-19th, for the two-day championship event, with nearly 95 riders in the varsity boys race and 34 in the varsity girls race, coming from the North Bay, East Bay and Central Coast regions.

Redwood placed second, with Archie Williams third in the Division I team standings over the weekend. The Giants still lead the overall standings after four races, with the Red-tailed Hawks second and Peregrine Falcons third. Marin Academy took third in the Division II standings, followed by San Domenico (fifth), Marin Catholic (12th) and San Marin (13th).

Marotto finished his race in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 34.29 seconds, just 16 seconds ahead of runner-up Sam Smith of Rio American. Marotto won all three races in which he competed this season to claim the boys regular season title, ahead of Archie Williams’ Simon Hewett, who did not race in the season finale.

Tam’s Johannah Nesbit placed third in the varsity girls race (1:19:34.86), with San Domenico’s Quinn Joyce seventh (1:23:58.97) and Redwood’s Ginger Howard 10th (1:30:35.30). The Giants’ Charlotte Philkill did not race Saturday, but placed third overall in the regular season, with Joyce and Nesbit rounding out the top five.

In Lower Lake on Saturday, San Marin’s Te’ah Hirschfeld placed fifth (1:05:55.20), with Marin Academy’s Matisse Buckley sixth (1:06:28.60).

Tam rider Jackson Huss placed 10th, with teammates Jack Dauphinais and Jacob Camposano 12th and 13th, respectively.

Archie Williams rider Noah Bott placed 11th, with teammates Alden McCarthy and Oliver Janson-Smith 15th and 16th, respectively. The Falcons had eight riders in the 27-person field.

The Mustangs’ Kieran Sanctuary finished 14th. San Rafael’s Oliver Kleinhenz took 24th place, ahead of North Marin Composite’s Finn Sumrall (25th).

Girls water polo

Terra Linda is looking to hire a girls varsity water polo coach for the fall 2024 season. Interested applicants should contact Terra Linda athletic director Steve Farbstein via email at sfarbstein@srcs.org.