KELSEYVILLE — When you”ve already had eight games washed out, what”s a little light rain?
“We were kind of dancing between raindrops,” Kelseyville High varsity baseball coach Lou Poloni said of his team”s 14-4 six-inning North Central League I victory over the Willits Wolverines on Thursday afternoon at Lloyd Larson Field.
The two teams started 30 minutes early – 3:30 p.m. instead of 4 – to get a jump on the rainy weather moving into the area.
“We thought about playing on Wednesday, but Thursday was supposed to be even better,” Poloni said.
The Knights (1-1 league, 2-2 overall) hadn”t taken the field for a full week because of the weather and needed a game in the worst way, according to Poloni.
“The kids were definitely champing at the bit,” Poloni said. “They wanted to play.”
After winning pitcher Nic Vargas shut out the Wolverines in the top of the first, the Knights staked him to a 4-0 lead in the bottom half. The first three runs of the inning scored on a Max Huff bases-loaded triple with no outs. Huff later scored on a wild pitch.
“Then we made two errors in the top of the second to put them right back in it,” Poloni said of the two runs scored by Willits to make it 4-2.
Kelseyville extended its lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the third on an Aaron Gonzales RBI single and a Jake Martinek sacrifice fly, but again Willits closed the gap with a two-run top of the fourth.
“Another error hurt us in the fourth,” Poloni said.
Vargas departed after four innings with a 6-4 lead. The score remained unchanged until the bottom of the sixth when the Knights sent 11 batters to the plate and scored eight times to take a 14-4 lead, at which point the game was called with one out and Kelseyville still batting because of the 10-run rule.
Huff”s bases-load walk opened the scoring in the sixth. Gonzales was hit by a pitch to force in another run, Martinek had a RBI single and John Mark Reagan (2-for-4) added a RBI double. Dustin Thaxton”s RBI single to left field pushed Kelseyville”s lead to 10 and ended the game.
Thaxton worked two scoreless and hitless innings in relief of Vargas to record the save. He struck out four and walked none.
“He kind of shut them down after the fourth,” Poloni said of Thaxton”s two dominating innings on the mound.
Kelseyville was scheduled to participate in the Arcata Tournament beginning today but the tourney has been canceled because of wet field conditions and a forecast that calls for more rain on Saturday. Instead, Arcata will travel to Kelseyville on Monday for a non-league doubleheader that begins at 2 p.m.
“Hopefully we”ll have a better week next week and get some games in,” Poloni said.
