Vigilantes’ Smith Goes Out on Winning Note

MISSION VIEJO — Mike Smith announced his retirement before the Vigilantes’ game and had tears in his eyes when it ended.

Smith pitched a four-hitter as the Vigilantes beat Sonoma County, 2-1, in a Western League game in front of an announced crowd of 2,779 at Saddleback College.

Smith, a right-hander with a compact motion, gave up a single and another runner reached on an error in the ninth but he got a double play off a grounder to second to end the game and his five-year career that included playing with three independent league teams.

“That’s it,” said Smith, 27. “I had friends and family here and this is a special night. . . . That is a great bunch of guys and I couldn’t have ended on anything better.”

Smith, who was already selected as the league’s pitcher of the year, finishes with a 10-4 record and an earned-run average of 2.95. Smith had 10 strikeouts and walked none but did hit one batter who later scored Sonoma County’s only run in the third. Despite the loss, Sonoma County (25-17) clinched the second-half title because Chico lost to Salinas.

Smith finished the season with 109 strikeouts and gave up 96 hits in 125 innings for the Vigilantes, who are 20-22 in the second half and 38-49 overall.

Smith, the pitching coach at Biola University, credits Manager Buck Rodgers and pitching coach Brad Lesley with helping him improve this season. They suggested Smith work on a forkball and his delivery.

“The forkball really helped me in some spots tonight,” Smith said. “I told my wife that once we started a family that unless I was on the doorstep [of the majors] this would be it.”

For a while it looked as if Smith’s exit from baseball would end in a loss until Sean Drinkwater hit a two-run homer in the sixth.

John Patton had given up three hits and nothing else in the first five inning and Sonoma turned the game over Kris Frank, who entered with an 8-1 record and a league-leading 2.29 earned-run average. But Sam Taylor lined a single to right and one out later Drinkwater drove the first pitch over the left-center field fence for his sixth home run of the season.