KELSEYVILLE — If the Kelseyville Knights are having a bad day at the plate or in the field, chances are Mike Duman is doing the pitching. At least that”s the way it has been on more than just a few occasions for the hard-throwing right-hander during his career at Kelseyville.
The appropriate baseball term is “tough-luck pitcher” and that has described Duman at times this season and last. Maybe that run of tough luck is finally over.
On Friday at Lloyd Larson Field, Kelseyville managed just two hits and committed three errors, but the Knights beat the Cloverdale Eagles 2-1 in a non-league game largely because of one player. If you guessed Mike Duman, you”re right.
“Duman was really the man for us today,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said of the senior. “It was really all about him.”
Avenging a 10-6 loss to Cloverdale back on March 24 in Cloverdale, the Knights rode Duman”s arm to a nail-biting one-run victory. He stopped the Eagles on just four hits — one of them a solo home run by Mitch Delfino leading off the top of the sixth — struck out eight and walked only one.
Kelseyville staked Duman to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first despite picking up only one hit in the inning, a leadoff single by Mike Davis. Blake Panos and Duman walked to load the bases and a one-out walk to Matt Jones forced in the game”s first run. Dustin Panos” sacrifice fly to left-center field made it 2-0.
And that”s all the run support Duman needed.
“It”s a good sign for him going into league,” Poloni said of Duman”s complete-game effort.
Duman”s shutout ended in impressive fashion when Delfino tied into one of the Kelseyville pitcher”s fastballs leading off the sixth. Even with a crosswind blowing at Lloyd Larson Field, Delfino hit one of the longest ? maybe the longest ? home runs in the history of that ballpark, according to Poloni.
“I remember when (Ray) Silva hit one that cleared the street (Park Street, behind the left-field fence) and went over a couple of houses,” Poloni said. “This one might have gone a couple of blocks. It was a bomb.”
Duman steered clear of trouble after that to register the victory as Kelseyville improved to 9-5.
Besides Davis” single in the first inning, Dustin Panos” triple to deep center field was the only other Kelseyville hit.
“If the wind hadn”t been blowing, that one might have been gone,” Poloni said. “It was a laser beam.”
Kelseyville opens its North Central League I North schedule on Tuesday with a home game against Fort Bragg at 4 p.m.
