LAKEPORT — Justin Lilly scattered five hits and was backed in the field by flawless defense as the Kelseyville Knights scored early and often while beating the Clear Lake Cardinals 6-1 in a non-league varsity baseball game at Lakeport.
“Lilly pitched well,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said. “I think we helped him a lot by not being patient at the plate. We swung at a lot of first pitches.”
“He pitched a gem,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said. “I”m really happy.”
Clear Lake beat Kelseyville 5-2 on March 17 in Lakeport.
“The biggest difference between this game and the last time we played is that this time they fielded everything ? they didn”t make an error,” Larrea said. “Last time we fielded everything and they made some mistakes.”
Lilly registered six strikeouts and walked only two. Losing pitcher Ryan Hansford, who beat the Knights last month, was gone after two innings.
Kelseyville scored in each of its first four at-bats, sandwiching two-run first and fourth innings around single runs in the second and third for a 6-0 lead. Clear Lake (6-3-1) tallied its lone run in the bottom of the fourth on Corey Dillon”s sacrifice fly.
Mike Davis went 3-for-3 with a RBI for the Knights (7-5) and Mike Duman went 2-for-4 with a RBI. Jesse Phillips had two of the Cardinals” five hits.
“We put the ball in play but we hit it at their two best players too often,” Larrea said of shortstop Davis and center fielder Peter Wotherspoon.
St. Vincent 8, Middletown 5
At Middletown, the St. Vincent Mustangs built a 7-3 lead in the first four innings and went on to beat the Middletown Mustangs for the second time this season.
Middletown (4-3) closed to 7-5 on a two-run single by Zach Strickler in the bottom of the fifth. Strickler (1-for-3) drove in three of Middletown”s runs, including a sacrifice fly in the third inning.
While St. Vincent roughed up Middletown starter Devin Nordin for seven runs and nine hits in 3 1/3 innings, reliever Ryan Johnson pretty much held the Petaluma team in check the rest of the way, allowing just one run on two hits.
“A very pleasant surprise,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said of Johnson. “He has a three-quarters delivery and he kept the ball down. He was one of the bright spots today.”
Kyle Harmyk went 2-for-4 and Eric Tomko went 1-for-3 with a RBI for Middletown.
Andrew Meiswinkel went 3-for-4 with two RBIs for St. Vincent, which has beaten Middletown five straight times, including the last three meetings at Wes Martin Field in Middletown.
St. Vincent also improved to 14-1 in interlock play, its lone loss coming to Middletown in May of 2006 at Middletown.
Rohrs is 3-1 on the season for the 7-2 St. Vincent club.
St. Helena 16, Lower Lake 8
At St. Helena, Richard Gutierrez drove in three runs with a bases-loaded single and had four RBIs overall, but the Lower Lake Trojans still came up short in a non-league loss to the St. Helena Saints.
Losing pitcher Jesus Fonseca went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and scored three times for the Trojans (1-7), and Joe Riggs went 2-for-4 and scored twice.
Nearly all of the game”s runs crossed the plate in the first four innings as St. Helena built a 15-7 lead.
Fonseca, the first of three Lower Lake pitchers, lasted just two innings.
He left the game trailing 9-3.
The Trojans are home Friday to play Upper Lake at 4 p.m.
