MIDDLETOWN — Nearly three months to the day that Middletown ended Healdsburg”s football season with a 10-0 victory at Middletown”s Bill Foltmer Field, the Greyhounds returned the favor by spoiling the Mustangs” season opener with a 10-0 non-league varsity baseball win at Wes Martin Field.
“We had no command of the strike zone, that was our problem,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said. “Our pitchers were not getting a first-pitch strike a lot.”
Losing pitcher Eric Schenk lasted just 1 2/3 innings, allowing three hits and five runs, striking out two, walking five and hitting two.
The same couldn”t be said of Healdsburg”s Geno Derrico, who went the distance in the five-inning game, striking out 10 and walking three.
“Their pitcher pitched ahead in the count all day,” Tucker said.
Healdsburg (1-1) scored two runs without benefit of a hit in the top of the first inning. The Greyhounds added three runs in the second and five more in the third, including a leadoff home run to center field.
Middletown (0-1) managed just four hits off Derrico, two of them by the Mustangs” No. 3 hitter, Schenk (2-for-3). Kyle Brown and Wayne Weatherwax had the others.
Saul Preciado and Bryan Holt followed Schenk to the mound.
Middletown, 15-10 last season, hosts Upper Lake Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
