KELSEYVILLE >> Their defense wasn’t particularly good on Friday afternoon and their pitchers worked behind in the count far too often, but the Kelseyville Knights certainly did rake the ball in a 6-4 non-league varsity baseball victory over the McKinleyville Panthers at Lloyd Larson Field in Kelseyville.
“I was really impressed with the way we swung the bat against them,” Kelseyville head coach Lou Poloni said of the Panthers. “We saw two quality pitchers.”
McKinleyville was making its season opener against the Knights (2-0) under threatening skies.
“They’re good, they’re a playoff team,” Poloni said. “It was a huge win for us because come May they’re going to be one of the 16 teams left (in the North Coast Section Division IV playoff field).”
No one hit the ball harder on Friday than did senior first baseman Sambhava Baird, who went 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Kelseyville scored in three different innings against McKinleyville and Baird figured prominently in each rally.
When Kelseyville scored three times in the bottom of the first inning to take a 3-1 lead, Baird’s two-run single capped the uprising. In the second, Baird’s RBI single made it 4-1, and during a two-run fourth it was a Baird RBI single that pushed Kelseyville’s lead to 5-3. They scored later in the inning on a double steal to go up 6-3.
“He hit three screaming line drives,” Poloni said of Baird. “The only out he made was a screaming line drive that almost killed their pitcher. It was crushed.”
McKinleyville’s pitcher raised his glove just in the nick of time to get a piece of the liner, according to Poloni.
“If he doesn’t knock it down he probably ends up at Sutter (as in the Lakeport hospital),” Poloni said.
Zack Villalobos batted in the leadoff position for the first time and went 2-for-4. Kyle Ellis and Dillon Hawley also had two hits each. Winning pitcher Noah Lyndall had the other Kelseyville hit and he also drove in a run with a groundout.
Lyndall worked 5 2/3 innings for the victory, striking out four and walking six. Barrick finished for the save, allowing just one hit and striking out one.
