SANTA ROSA >> Only hours after beating Healdsburg 11-6 on Tuesday night in Healdsburg for their first win of the season, the Middletown Mustangs were back on the field Wednesday afternoon to face the Piner Prospectors in non-league varsity baseball action at Santa Rosa.
“We didn’t get home (from Healdsburg) until around midnight and we came out pretty flat today,” Middletown coach Brad Holt. “You could tell the kids were tired.”
Middletown spotted Piner a 7-0 lead before rallying in the late innings to make it close. They fell 8-6, dropping their season record to 1-5.
One encouraging sign for the Mustangs, according to Holt, is their bats are finally waking up. After pounding out 10 hits on Tuesday night against Healdsburg, Middletown came back with 10 more hits against Piner, led by Chris Davis, who went 3-for-5 with a double and a RBI, and John Kelly, who went 3-for-4.
“Our bats are starting to come alive,” Holt said.
Middletown scored all of its runs in the final two innings, getting two in the sixth and four more in the seventh.
On Tuesday night under the lights against Healdsburg, the Mustangs used a three-run top of the fourth inning to erase the Greyhounds’ 6-5 lead. Middletown added three insurance runs in the seventh.
Winning pitcher Tyler Holt reliever struggling starter Albert Ruske in the bottom of the first inning and went on to finish the game. He struck out 14 in 6 1/3 innings, including the side in the second, third, sixth and seventh.
“He actually got stronger as the game went on,” Holt said of his son’s big night on the mound.
Davis led the offense, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs. Ruske and Stephen Amos each had two hits. Amos also doubled and drove in three runs.
Middletown returns to action Friday in Upper Lake at 4 p.m.
