KELSEYVILLE — Geno Dericco struck out 10 in six innings and the Healdsburg Greyhounds beat the Kelseyville Knights 5-1 in a non-league varsity baseball game Thursday afternoon at Lloyd Larson Field.
Dericco and reliever Max Opperman combined on a six-hitter with 11 strikeouts.
“Healdsburg”s going to be good,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said of the Greyhounds, who improved to 3-1 overall and 3-0 against North Central League I teams, including wins against St. Helena and Middletown. “We might have had a chance if we had done everything right.”
And that”s something the Knights didn”t do. While they did out-hit the Greyhounds 6-5, they gave up to many free bases ? five walks, two hit batsmen and three errors. Healdsburg took advantage by getting its leadoff batter aboard in the first, second and fifth innings, and scoring each time.
The Greyhounds tallied single runs in the first, second and third innings for a 3-0 lead. They made it 5-0 with a RBI double and run-scoring error in the top of the fifth.
Losing pitcher Mike Davis struggled with his control at times, walking Healdsburg”s leadoff hitter in the first and second innings.
“When he attacked the strike zone he was really tough,” Poloni said. “The walks killed us and the three errors kind of killed us. We did a good job of minimizing everything, but we need to do a better job of not giving up those free bases.”
Davis called it a day after five innings, allowing four hits, all five Healdsburg runs, striking out three and walking five. Dustin Thaxton finished up with two innings of scoreless relief.
Kelseyville broke up the shutout with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the fifth as Blake Sedrick homered to left field.
“He hit it very high and fairly deep down the line,” Poloni said. “I thought it was going foul but it kept going straight.”
Kelseyville hit a couple of other balls hard but Healdsburg”s defense was up to the task. Thaxton led off the bottom of the sixth with a blast to deep left-center field that center fielder Opperman gloved at the fence.
