KELSEYVILLE — Dustin Thaxton pitched the Kelseyville Knights back into the North Central League I varsity baseball race on Tuesday at Lloyd Larson Field in Kelseyville.
Avenging an 8-3 loss to St. Helena last month in St. Helena, the Knights handed the Saints their first league loss, 5-2. Thaxton played a big role in the victory by tossing a complete game with five strikeouts and one walk. He also went 3-for-3 with a double at the plate.
St. Helena (5-1) still leads the league but now it”s a much tighter race. Clear Lake is 4-1, Kelseyville is 5-2, Middletown is 4-2 and Fort Bragg 4-3 following Tuesday”s action.
“He”s our ace, he”s kind of a strike machine,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said of Thaxton. “His strikeout-to-walk ratio is five, six, seven to one. He doesn”t give up a lot of free bases.”
The Knights scored four times in the bottom of the sixth to erase a 2-1 St. Helena lead. John Mark Reagan led off with a walk, Thaxton beat out an intended sacrifice bunt for a single and Max Huff doubled home Reagan to knot the score at 2. Jake Peters (2-for-3) followed with a two-run double to the left-center field gap to give Kelseyville a 4-2 lead. Jacob Martinek capped the rally with a RBI single.
“The boys tightened down today,” Poloni said. “We gave up those single runs (in the fourth and sixth innings) but we didn”t let them hang the big, crooked number that”s been killing us.”
Kelseyville is 6-6 overall.
St. Helena head coach Brandon Farrell was ejected in the top of the fifth inning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
