Sports Briefs: Tam golf duo Friedman, Thill tie for 17th at state championship

The challenges and pressures of the San Gabriel Country Club were different for Tam High golfers Ben Friedman and Hayden Thill, but they had identical finishes.

Friedman and Hill both finished 2-over 73 on Wednesday to join a six-way tie for 17th place at the CIF State Boys Championship. The two Red-tailed Hawks standouts are the first Marin County golfers to compete in the boys championship since 2013, when the Branson School’s Miguel Delgado placed second at Carmel’s Quali Lodge Golf Course.

Max Emberson of Oaks Christian and Kai Hirayama of Temple City, both from the Southern Section, finished 1-2 in the individual scoring Wednesday. Emberson cruised around the course with a 5-under 66 for the championship, with Hirayama a stroke behind in second.

Torrey Pines won the team championship handily at 6-over 361, six strokes ahead of second-place De La Salle.

Friedman, who started on the first tee, was relatively consistent, shooting even par through the front nine. He bogeyed three holes on the back nine, but also birdied the 13th hole. Thill bogeyed his first hole, the tricky 10th, but recovered with a birdie on the 12th. In all, Thill registered four birdies, but they were erased by four bogeys, and a double bogey on the 17th hole pushed him over par.

Baseball

The San Rafael Pacifics continues their undefeated start to the 2024 Pecos League season with Wednesday’s 6–0 road victory over the Dublin Leprechauns. Righthander Alex Valasek, who won pitcher-of-the-year honors last season in the Pecos League’s Pacific Division, went seven innings, striking out 13 batters and walking just two. Rookie Karon Casey finished up the final two innings.

Centerfielder Xavier Selway was 3-for-5 as San Rafael collected 14 hits. Valasek, left fielder John Bicos and first baseman Telly Hill each had two hits. An RBI-Single from Valasek in the fourth and a solo homer by Bicos gave the Pacifics a 2-0 lead to build on before they scored four runs in the eighth to cap the win. The Pacifics, now 5-0, are scheduled to play winless Dublin in another road game on Thursday before returning home to Albert Park on Friday to host Bakersfield.

• Vinnie Lencioni unleashed three-run homer and starting pitcher Nico Tejada pitched six shutout innings as the Novato Knicks earned a 12-2 road win over the Lincoln Potters on Sunday to complete a three-game series sweep Tejada got the win and Elijah Aguilar pitched three solid innings in his Knicks debut.

Elli Hancock 3 hits Benny Nazario had a productive two-hit day for Novato, including a bases-clearing triple with two outs. Eli Hancock had three hits and Brandon Herter came through with a two-run double.

The Knicks have a two-game series with the rival Sonoma Stompers at Arnold Field on Thursday and Friday before returning home Sunday for a doubleheader against the Fairfield Indians, beginning at noon.