KELSEYVILLE — The 2010 race for the North Central League I North varsity baseball title wasn”t all that wide open after all.
Dylan Pastor tripled home what proved to be the winning run in the top of the sixth and Eric Schenk added a big two-run single in the seventh for insurance as the Middletown Mustangs locked up the North championship with a come-from-behind 6-3 victory over the Kelseyville Knights on Friday at Lloyd Larson Field.
Middletown (6-0, 13-8) has won nine straight and 12 of 13 since opening the season 1-7.
“If we”re not going to win it, I”m glad somebody from up here did,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said of the North title. “Mitch (Tucker) and Chris (Emberson), I”ve got a lot of respect for those guys,” Poloni said of Middletown”s coaching staff. “I”m happy for them.”
“The kids were thrilled,” Middletown head coach Mitch Tucker said of the Mustangs” title-clinching victory. “Now we want to keep pushing, we don”t want to let up at all. We want to get as high a seed as we can get in the playoffs.”
Kelseyville (4-3, 10-9) needed a victory to stay in the hunt for the league title. Now the Knights are just hoping to qualify for the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs as an at-large team. They host South leader St. Vincent on Tuesday in an interlock game before closing out their North schedule at home next Friday against Fort Bragg. Kelseyville needs to win at least one of those games to be playoff eligible.
The Mustangs have no such problem because they”re guaranteed a spot now.
Middletown scored first against Kelseyville to go up 1-0 in the top of the third, but losing pitcher Mike DeGregorio gave the Knights the lead with one swing of the bat in the bottom half of the inning, crunching a 1-0 offering from winning pitcher Daniel Sallee over the left-center field fence for a three-run home run, his Lake County-leading fourth home run of the season.
The Mustangs chipped away with single runs in the fourth and fifth to tie the game. Pastor”s two-out triple in the sixth scored Austin Hunter to give Middletown a 4-3 lead and Schenk”s two-run single in the seventh secured the victory.
“I have six seniors in my starting lineup,” Tucker said. “We”re a veteran club that doesn”t get rattled and we just kept chipping.”
Sallee and reliever Ryan Johnson, who pitched two scoreless innings to notch the save, combined on a three-hitter. DeGregorio went the distance for Kelseyville, striking out eight and walking four. Only three of the runs he allowed were earned.
“He pitched real well today, it was a good baseball game,” Poloni said.
“It was an intense game,” Tucker added. “They made a couple of errors here and there and we took advantage.”
Middletown”s Brett Humphrey went 2-for-4, the only player on either team to have more than one hit.
Notes: Middletown completed a sweep of sorts in terms of boys” sports during the 2009-2010 sports season. The Mustangs also won the NCL I North football and basketball championships.
