KELSEYVILLE — Dustin Thaxton struck out 11 and walked only one while working out of two bases-loaded jams and the Kelseyville Knights upset No. 2 seed Healdsburg 3-2 on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division IV baseball playoffs at Lloyd Larson Field.
Kelseyville (17-7) advances to the semifinal round and will host McKinleyville (17-8) on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The winner of that contest moves into the section championship game either June 3-4.
“This is kind of like a little team of destiny,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said. “I told them before the game that I really liked the matchup (against the Greyhounds) and that we were going to beat these guys.”
The same pitcher who defeated Kelseyville 5-1 in a March 14 game at Healdsburg, Geno Dericco, took the loss this time around, allowing all three Kelseyville runs as well as eight of the Knights” nine hits. He struck out five and walked four.
Thaxton scattered seven hits and made all the big pitches when he needed to. The Knights backed him by scoring single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings for a 3-1 lead. They then held on during a scary bottom of the sixth during which third baseman Max Huff took a hard grounder off his face and had to leave the game.
The higher-seeded Greyhounds were the home team on the scoreboard even though the game took place on Kelseyville”s homefield. However, a large crowd had no problem identifying the real home team.
“God, it”s nice,” Poloni said of a solid turnout of Kelseyville fans. “We get maybe 20-30 fans for a game during the season and we had maybe 200-250 fans here today. It was another good, loud crowd and I think they (players) feed off of that a little bit.”
In a sign of things to come for both Thaxton and the Greyhounds, Kelseyville”s pitcher wiggled out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the first inning. The Knights forced a runner at the plate on a grounder to third for the second out, and a grounder to shortstop ended the inning as Mike Davis stepped on second base for the force.
Healdsburg took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a Max Opperman RBI single.
Kelseyville tied it in the top of the fourth. Thaxton (2-for-4) singled with one out, moved to second base on a Devon Call groundout, and scored on Huff”s RBI double down the left-field line.
The Knights moved ahead to stay in the top of the fifth on a Thaxton two-out RBI single that scored Nic Vargas (2-for-3) from second base.
Kelseyville added to its lead in the sixth. Nick Rodrigues drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on Blake Sedrick”s sacrifice bunt, and scored on Vargas” single to right field.
Rodrigues was rounding third base when Healdsburg”s right fielder gloved the ball. Poloni waved him home anyway.
“He wasn”t even at third but I decided to gamble,” Poloni said. “We had the lead, so I sent him.”
Healdsburg closed the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth. A one-out walk, the only one issued by Thaxton in the game, a single and a Kelseyville error loaded the bases. Benny Shakked followed with a hard grounder to third base that hit Huff on the left side of his face. A run scored on the play and the Greyhounds still had the bases loaded as the Knights attended to Huff”s injury, which delayed the game for more than five minutes, according to Poloni.
“It was a hard-hit ball that came up on him,” Poloni said. “It was a little scary, but Max is Max and he wanted to stay in the game.”
Once Huff”s bleeding was under control, Poloni said he was removed for precautionary reasons.
“He was really pissed … he wanted to go back in,” Poloni said. “I”m sure he”ll be ready to go for Wednesday.”
When play finally resumed, Thaxton again worked out of a bases-loaded jam by striking out the next batter and getting an inning-ending groundout to first base.
“He had three pitches going today … a slider, fastball and a nice change-up,” Poloni said. “He really did a great job.”
Healdsburg got its leadoff hitter aboard in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, he stole second but couldn”t get any farther as Thaxton struck out the Greyhounds” Nos. 4 and 5 hitters to end it.
