UPPER LAKE — Maybe a good time wasn”t had by all but it was plenty Meri for the Upper Lake Cougars as they battered Santa Rosa Christian 15-4 in a non-league varsity baseball game on a windy and chilly Friday afternoon at Upper Lake.
“It was pretty darn cold,” Upper Lake coach Donnie Meri said of the winter weather that greeted both teams. “When the sun came out a few times it warmed up 10 degrees.”
A cold drizzle fell early in the game but quickly gave way to mostly cloudy conditions the remainder of the day. But while players and fans felt the winter nip, the Cougars” bats were plenty warm. Upper Lake collected 14 hits in a game called after 4 1/2 innings because of the 10-run rule.
“We were hitting the ball, that”s for sure,” Meri said.
Jayce Meri was hitting it better than anyone else.
The son of Upper Lake”s head coach went 3-for-3 with a walk and he drove in at least one run in every plate appearance. He doubled home a run in the bottom of the first inning to make it 1-0, singled in a run during the Cougars” five-run second, tripled with the bases loaded during a seven-run third, and walked to force in a run in the bottom of the fourth.
Meri also pitched three-plus innings for the victory, allowing two runs on no hits, striking out four and walking six.
Upper Lake players with two hits were Joe Barnes (2-for-3, double, RBI), Jordan Hickey (2-forf-3, double, 2 RBIs), Devin Callen (2-for-4, 2 RBIs) and Josh Stuckert (2-for-4, RBI).
In other action Friday:
Kelseyville 13, Lassen 12
Kelseyville 7, Chico 5
At Chico, trailing 7-0 going to the bottom of the second against Lassen High School in the opening round of the Oroville Tournament, Kelseyville High School varsity baseball coach Lou Poloni said he couldn”t help but think, “What am I doing here?”
Poloni”s disposition changed in a hurry as the Knights rallied for a 13-12 win, a game called after six innings because of a tournament time rule. And if that wasn”t enough to brighten Poloni”s day, Kelseyville, with only 15 minutes between games, came back to beat Chico High School 7-5 in a second-round game.
“I was pretty happy to get that one run,” Poloni said of the run the Knights scored in the top of the second to go up 1-0 against Chico, a school that has roughly four times the student body as Kelseyville.
Chico rallied to take a 3-2 lead after three innings, but the Knights came back with a five-run top of the fifth. Winning pitcher Tommy Mingori doubled home a run and Michael Davis had a sacrifice fly, then pinch-hitter Kevin Gleason delivered a back-breaking two-run double to deep center field for what proved to be the game-winning hit.
Chico scored twice in the bottom of the seventh against reliever Mike Duman, who registered the save.
Mingori finished the game 2-for-3 with two doubles, a RBI and two runs.
In the opening round against Lassen, the Knights were one out away from a 12-11 loss when Justin Lilly hit a routine grounder to third base with runners at second and third. The throw to first was on target but the Lassen first baseman failed to catch the ball and the resulting error allowed both runners to score.
Davis was the winning pitcher in relief.
Lilly had two hits and scored four times.
Softball
Middletown 4, St. Helena 2
At St. Helena, the Middletown Mustangs, who were rained out at the Willits Tournament on Friday, put together a last-second game with St. Helena and beat the Saints in eight innings.
Winning pitcher Jen Emberson”s RBI single in the top of the eighth snapped a 1-1 tie but it was Megan Marincic”s two-run single two batters later that proved to be the game-winning hit as the Saints came back with a run in the bottom of the inning.
“She has potential you can”t believe,” Middletown coach Lisa Rogers said of the freshman Marincic, who plated the Mustangs” final two runs with a base hit to deep right field.
Until the eighth inning, the only scoring came in the top of the second, when the Mustangs went up 1-0, and in the bottom of the sixth, when the Saints pulled even at 1.
Emberson worked all eight innings for the victory, striking out 11 and walking three. She also went 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored.
“She had a great day,” Rogers said.
Jessica Boylan went 2-for-5 with a double and Nikeedra Davis went 2-for-3 for Middletown (1-1).
Kelseyville 19, Portola 13
Willows 10, Kelseyville 1
At Hamilton City, the Kelseyville softball team won a slugfest in the opening round of the Hamilton City Tournament, beating Portola, but then lost to Willows in a second-round game.
Against Portola, Allyson Brown went 4-for-4 with a triple and a RBI and Amanda Mueller went 2-for-5 with a home run to lead the Knights” 17-hit attack. Winning pitcher Casey Bowlin added two hits.
Leading 11-8 going, the Knights put the game away with an eight-run rally in the top of the sixth.
Against Willows, losing pitcher Jillian Allen gave up a pair of home runs and the Honkers built an early 5-0 lead en route to the win.
“Willows has some sticks and they were crushing the ball,” Kelseyville coach Greg Giusti said.
Ty Van Housen, Ashley Johnson and Monique Santana had the Knights” only hits.
Kelseyville received solid play in the field from Ashley Mueller at second base and Megan Andre at shortstop, according to Giusti.
Tomales 10, Lower Lake 0
At Tomales, the Lower Lake Trojans fell to the Tomales Braves in non-league action despite turning a 2-3-2 (catcher-to-first-to-catcher) double play.
Lower Lake catcher Christine Powers pounced on a ball hit out in front of the plate and threw a strike to first baseman Stephanie Mederos to get one out. When a Tomales runner at third base broke for the plate, Mederos” return throw home arrived in time as Powers applied the tag to complete the double play.
The Trojans (0-4), who had only three hits, also received a defensive gem from second baseman Danielle McKay, who gloved a line drive with the bases loaded in the fourth to end the inning.
Losing pitcher Kristen Garcia, Brittany Shores and Darlena White had Lower Lake”s hits, all singles.
Garcia went the distance on the mound, striking out two and walking six.
“I”m happy with her for throwing more strikes,” Lower Lake coach Tim Sherrell said of Garcia, “but we didn”t back her up in the field very well (five errors).”
Twelve of the 18 outs made by the Trojans in the six-inning game were strikeouts.
