KELSEYVILLE — Mike Davis pitched a second straight complete game and Blake Sedrick delivered another game-winning hit on Tuesday afternoon as the Kelseyville Knights beat the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 4-3 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV baseball playoffs at Lloyd Larson Field.
Kelseyville (16-7) moves into the quarterfinal round and will host No. 2 seed Healdsburg (14-10) on Friday at 5 p.m. Healdsburg beat Kelseyville 5-1 in a mid-March game at Recreation Park in Healdsburg.
“I thought it was huge,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said of the homefield advantage in the rubber game between the two North Central League I North rivals this season (Kelseyville beat the Timberwolves 5-0 at home on April 26 and lost to them 7-6 on May 12 in Fort Bragg). “If you”re going to come and play here, get ready for a loud crowd that”s into the game. We love it.”
Davis allowed six hits, struck out six, walked one and also hit two while beating Fort Bragg for the first time this season. He made a great play off the mound in the top of the seventh when the Timberwolves (15-9) had the top of their batting order coming up. Leadoff hitter Cody Ryden, who pitched the first four innings for Fort Bragg only to get a no-decision, worked the count to 3-1 before hitting a slow dribbler past the left side of the mound. Davis pounced on the ball, turned and fired a strike to first baseman Sedrick just in the nick of time to retire the speedy Ryden.
“It was a great play,” Poloni said.
Davis caught Travis Vichi, the losing pitcher, on a called third strike for the second out and he retired Al Huerta on a grounder to shortstop to end the game.
While the Timberwolves never led in the game, they did pull even at 3-3 on Kevin Llamas” RBI grounder in the top of the fifth. Fort Bragg put runners at first and third with no outs in the inning and Davis worked out of the jam with minimal damage.
“Keep it small,” Poloni said. “I know you”ve heard that before but that”s what we always try to do and Mike did a nice job to allow just the one run in that inning. It could have been a lot worse.”
With Vichi relieving Ryden to start the bottom of the fifth, Max Huff was plunked in the shoulder on Vichi”s first pitch but was then erased at second base when John Mark Reagan bounced into a force play. Reagan moved to second on a passed ball and to third on a groundout before Sedrick drilled Vichi”s first pitch into left field for a base hit, giving the Knights a 4-3 lead.
Sedrick also had the game-winning hit — a three-run home run — in Kelseyville”s previous game, a NCL I North-title clinching 8-5 victory over Middletown the previous Tuesday in Kelseyville. Davis went the distance on the mound in that game as well.
The Knights” 4-3 lead was never in jeopardy as Davis worked 1-2-3 sixth and seventh innings.
“It wasn”t easy,” Poloni said of another Davis pitching gem. “Fort Bragg swings the bat, they”re not going to strike out much, so you have to be on your toes.”
Kelseyville”s defense was just that, playing flawlessly in the field, including a 1-6-3 double play that ended the top of the second.
Likewise the Timberwolves flashed some leather of their own, turning a 1-6-3 double play in the bottom of the fourth when the Knights, leading 3-2 at the time, loaded the bases with one out and were on the verge of breaking it open with clean-up hitter Devon Call at the plate.
“We had a lot of opportunities that we didn”t take advantage of,” Poloni said. “We had a lot of chances.”
That was certainly the case as the Knights piled up 11 hits. Led by Davis (3-for-4), every player in the batting order had at least one hit. But while Kelseyville stranded its fair share of runners, it also came through in the clutch — all four of the Knights” runs scored on two-out hits.
The first of those big two-out hits was Reagan”s two-run single to right field in the bottom of the first to make it 2-0.
Fort Bragg closed to 2-1 in the top of the third on a RBI grounder by Huerta, but Kelseyville got that run back on Nick Rodrigues” two-out RBI double in the bottom of the inning.
The Timberwolves cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the fourth on a two-out hit of their own, Bradley Norman”s RBI single.
Notes: Davis now has 42 hits in 23 games for the Knights ? The last time Kelseyville advanced into the second round of the playoffs was 2005. That year they beat Salesian 4-3 in the opening round before falling 3-0 to Justin-Siena ? Davis is 5-2 on the mound for the Knights. He took the loss in relief at Fort Bragg during the second league meeting between the two teams.
