KELSEYVILLE — Four straight RBI singles with two outs in the bottom of the second inning helped propel the Kelseyville Knights to a 7-2 varsity baseball victory over the Clear Lake Cardinals on Tuesday afternoon at Lloyd Larson Field.
As a result, the Knights (10-3 league, 11-7 overall) are still in the hunt for a North Central League I co-championship and two things must occur for that to happen. First, Cloverdale needs to beat St. Helena (11-2) on Thursday in Cloverdale. If the Eagles (5-8) can upset the league-leading Saints in the NCL I finale for both teams, Kelseyville would have to beat Middletown (6-7) in its regular-season finale on Friday in Middletown. Those two outcomes — a St. Helena loss and a Kelseyville win on Friday — would leave the two teams tied for first place.
If St. Helena and Kelseyville finish tied at 11-3, a one-game playoff would be held Saturday at noon in Kelseyville to determine which team advances to the North Coast Section playoffs as the league”s automatic representative. The loser will still make it via the at-large route.
“We”re going to be big Eagle fans Thursday afternoon,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said. “That would be nice if they won, but we”ve still got to take care of business against Middletown. We just want to stay hot.”
Hot is something the Knights most assuredly are. They”ve won four straight and seven of eight heading into Middletown, a team they beat 10-0 in six innings on May 4.
“All we can control is what we can control,” Poloni said. “We need to beat Middletown.”
Kelseyville handed Clear Lake (8-6, 12-10) a loss its league finale and is the only team to sweep the Cardinals in league play this season. Clear Lake will finish fourth in the league standings.
“We”re a young team and we”re going to keep getting better,” Clear Lake coach Zane Jensen said. “Today we didn”t throw enough first-pitch strikes and working ahead in the count makes a big difference.”
Kelseyville chased Clear Lake starter Chad Elliston, the first of three Cardinal pitchers, after only 1 2/3 innings. Elliston worked a scoreless first inning and struck out two of the first three batters he faced in the second before things begin to fall apart both for him and Clear Lake.
With Dalton Gunther at second base and two outs, Jacob Martinek, first-pitch swinging against Elliston, punched a single into left field to give Kelseyville a 1-0 lead. A fielding error on the play allowed Martinek to move up to second although he didn”t stay there very long. Zack Bailey, Kelseyville”s No. 9 hitter, slapped a 1-0 pitch into left field for another single to score Martinek and make it 2-0. Bailey advanced to second on a wild pitch before John Mark Reagan, ahead in the count 2-0, singled to drive in the third run of the inning. An error in the outfield on Reagan”s hit allowed him to move up to second and he scored on winning pitcher Dustin Thaxton”s RBI single to left.
“Coaches love that,” Poloni said of two-out hits with runners in scoring position. “And we had four in a row.”
Elliston hit Jake Peters before Andrew Jackson came on in relief and struck out Max Huff with runners at the corners to end the uprising.
The 4-0 lead proved plenty for staff ace Thaxton, who went the distance for the victory, allowing seven hits, striking out nine and walking three.
“It wasn”t his best game, but it was good enough to win,” Poloni said. “His control is usually better than it was today, but if he”s going to give up two runs and it”s a bad day, I”ll take it every time.”
“Dustin Thaxton is a great pitcher,” Jensen said. “He keeps guy off balance.”
Kelseyville added two runs in the fourth to go up 6-0 and was greatly aided by three hit batman in the inning, the final one forcing in a run with the bases loaded. Devon Call”s sacrifice fly brought home the other run.
Clear Lake”s best chance to make a game of it came in the top of the fifth when Thaxton walked the first two batters he faced. Joey Blair (2-for-3) then doubled to right field to make it 6-1 and the Cardinals had runners at second and third and no outs. When Jake Dekeyser hit a grounder to Kelseyville second baseman Martinek, the Cardinals should have had another run but the Clear Lake runner at third base hesitated, ended up in a rundown and was thrown out to complete a 4-3-2 double play that killed the rally.
“That was a big play,” Poloni said. “We had the infield back and were conceding the run. You never know, that could have turned into a bigger inning.”
Clear Lake closed to 6-2 in the top of the sixth when Steven Edwards (2-for-3) singled, moved up to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on Elliston”s single.
Kelseyville got that run back in the bottom of the sixth on a Thaxton leadoff triple to right field and Jake Peters” sacrifice fly.
Thaxton (3-for-4) was the only Kelseyville player with more than one hit. The stat of the game for the Knights, however, was their RBI distribution. Seven different Knights had one RBI.
“You just can”t live with your 2-3-4-5 guys,” Poloni said of the Kelseyville batting order. “We”re pretty deep. We have 16 guys and the bottom seven would start for a lot of teams in this league. To stay in our lineup you better be able to do something because guys are pushing each other pretty hard.”
And pushing hard is exactly what the Knights are doing, and doing well, as the 2012 regular season enters its final days.
