Sports Briefs: Mill Valley golfer Friedman earns spot in amateur championships

Mill Valley’s Nikolai Friedman shot a 1-over par 73 at Oakland’s Metropolitan Golf Links to place 14th and qualify for the 2024 NCGA Amateur Championship. Friedman, with a 1.2 handicap, had a consistent round, shooting par on 13 holes, with birdies on the par 4 ninth hole and the par 5 17th.

San Anselmo’s Drake Smith was close behind at 4-over 76, but did not make the cut with a 30th-place finish. San Rafael’s Ryan Herbst tied for 44th with a 6-over 78.

The NCGA Amateur Championship is scheduled to be held Aug. 12-15 at Pebble Beach. Qualifying tournaments were also held this week in San Jose, Monterey and Sacramento. The final qualifier will be held Friday, July 26, in Windsor.

Baseball

San Rafael, the Pecos League Pacific Division Leaders, dropped a 16-1 loss to second-place Bakersfeild at Albert Park on Friday night. The Train Robbers (26-19) completed the two-game sweep to tighten the gap in the standings to just two games, with seven games left in the regular season.

Bakersfield, which outhit San Rafael 22-3, scored six runs in the first two innings, then put the game out of reach with a seven-run fourth inning.

San Rafael (29-18) scored its lone run in the seventh inning when Jakob Bouhuys got on base on a fielder’s choice, then stole second and advanced to third base on a wild pitch before scoring on a putout on a Xavier Selway grounder.

Esai Santos had two hits and Dan Crossan had one for San Rafael, which is scheduled to play at Martinez on Sunday with a 2 p.m. start.

• NorCal Black 18U scored four runs in the first inning and rocked the We Savages 11-0 in four inning on Saturday in Sparks, Nevada. Kaden Pedersoli pitched the shutout.

• NorCal Black 2027 shut out the NorCal Aces Black, 6-0, on Saturday. San Marin High’s Max Montalvo hit an RBI grounder and stole home as NorCal Black scored twice in the bottom of the second inning for a 2-0 lead to get the ball rolling.