MIDDLETOWN — Saul Preciado just missed a no-hitter while pitching the Middletown Mustangs to their first win of the 2011 season, a 12-0 victory over the Upper Lake Cougars in non-league varsity baseball action Wednesday at Wes Martin Field in Middletown.
The game was called after 4 ? innings because of the 10-run rule.
Preciado walked Billy Armstrong to open the top of the fifth and retired the next batter, bringing Wes Thaxton, the No. 9 hitter in the Cougars” lineup, to the plate. Thaxton worked the count full and fouled off a handful of pitches before blooping a single into shallow center field.
“My second baseman was calling for it but he couldn”t get back in time,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said. “It”s probably a ball that should have been caught.”
Preciado preserved the shutout when the next batter hit a comebacker to the mound. Preciado forced Thaxton at second base for the second out of the inning. On the same play, Armstrong got hung up between third base and home and was tagged out to end the game.
“He did a good job working out of jams,” Tucker said of Preciado, who did walk five while also striking out four.
Middletown (1-1) scored five times in the bottom of the second to break open a scoreless game. The Mustangs added four more runs in the third and three in the fourth.
Eric Schenk went 2-for-3 with a triple and four RBIs to lead the Mustangs at the plate. He singled home two runs in the second and tripled home two more in the third. John Tanguay (2-for-2) drove in three runs and scored twice, and Andres Fernandez went 2-for-2 with a double, two runs and two RBIs.
Upper Lake starting pitcher Jared Wade took the loss as the Cougars fell to 2-2 on the season.
In other baseball action Wednesday:
Cloverdale 7, Kelseyville 6
At Cloverdale, Clov-erdale rallied from a 6-2 deficit to hand Kelseyville (1-1) its first loss of the season.
Kelseyville had just scored five times in the top of the fifth inning to go up 6-2 when the Eagles rallied with two runs in the bottom of the inning and three runs in the sixth.
“We are definitely back to earth,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said after the Knights opened the season with a 4-3 win over Justin-Siena of Napa, a team they hadn”t beaten since their season opener in 1999. “We didn”t throw the strikes we needed to throw. And we didn”t do a very good job behind the plate, giving up a lot of extra bases.”
Three Kelseyville pitchers combined on a six-hitter, but they also hit five batters.
“And most of those guys scored,” Poloni said.
Devon Call went 3-for-3 to lead the Knights at the plate, including a RBI single in the five-run fifth. Nick Rodrigues (2-for-4) and Nic Vargas (1-for-4) also had run-scoring singles in the inning.
The Knights finished with nine hits overall, two of them by Max Huff (2-for-4, RBI).
Dustin Thaxton, the final Kelseyville pitcher, took the loss.
“You”ve got to give Cloverdale credit,” Poloni said. “We threw up a five-spot in the fifth and they looked like they could have rolled over, but they came back to win it.”
Softball
Upper Lake 16, Potter Valley 5
At Potter Valley, Amber McQueen, Vanessa Hanson and Courtney McVey all went 4-for-4 and the Upper Lake Cougars pounded out 25 hits while routing the Potter Valley Bearcats in a non-league game called after five innings because of the 10-run rule.
Winning pitcher Katherine Edmonds (3-for-4) and Kelly Strong (2-for-4) drove in three runs apiece as the Cougars improved to 2-0. McQueen, Hanson and Kate Irwin added two RBIs apiece.
Edmonds struggled with her control in the first inning, walking five, but settled down to toss a two-hitter. She finished with five strikeouts and 10 walks.
Leading 5-4 going to the top of the third, the Cougars scored five times to lengthen their lead. They followed that up with three-run fourth and fifth innings.
JV baseball
El Molino 13, Lower Lake 4
At Clearlake, the El Molino Lions beat the Lower Lake Trojans in non-league junior varsity baseball action at Redbud Park.
John Duncan went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs for the Trojans (1-2) and Ryan Dahnke went 2-for-4 with a double and a RBI. Other leaders were Thaddeus Wetmore (2-for-2) and Jake Peters, who tripled in two official at-bats.
Losing pitcher Zef Roofner struck out five in five innings.
Kelseyville 11, Cloverdale 8
At Cloverdale, John Mark Reagan pitched 4 1/3 innings for the victory, striking out 11, and the Kelseyville Knights beat the Cloverdale Eagles in non-league JV action.
Reagan also went 2-for-3 with three runs scored. Mike Snider went 1-for-2 with a double and a RBI as Kelseyville improved to 2-1. Preston Herdt led off the game with a double and later scored.
Kelseyville scored five times in the top of the sixth inning.
