KELSEYVILLE >> Lower Lake High School varsity baseball coach John McCarthy had little to say after being shut out 2-0 by the Kelseyville Knights on Tuesday on the Kelseyville diamond in the North Central League I opener for both teams..
His silence was symptomatic of the Trojans’ play. They had virtually nothing to say in the direction the game was moving. Mum was the word.
That is except for Kelseyville’s loquacious head baseball coach Lou Poloni, who didn’t find much good to say about the Knights’ performance even in victory.
“We gotta hit the ball better,” Poloni said. “We gotta do a better job of scoring runs. We gotta do a lot better if we’re going to do anything in league. There are a lot of good teams in the league.”
To say the least, the Knights did not overpower Lower Lake with their three total hits. Both of their runs came as a result of small ball. Zack Villalobos led off the bottom of the third inning against Lower Lake starting pitcher Hoke Wickard by reaching on an infield single. He moved to third on a single by Randy Pfann and scored on a ground ball by Deven Dugger.
Kelseyville’s second run also took a bit of manufacturing as Logan Barrick was hit by a pitch in the fourth, stole second, got to third on a throwing error by the catcher, and scored on Nick Pfann’s single.
Barrick, who like his Lower Lake counterpart Wickard went the distance, did a serviceable job of holding the Trojans to four hits and was effective when he had to be – such as getting out of innings after Ryan Hallsted led off with a double in the fifth, and after Bobby Cruz tripled with two outs in the sixth. He walked only one and struck out four. Mostly he induced the Trojans to hit the ball on the ground.
Barrick also got a big assist from Lower Lake’s ill-advised base running.
“Logan didn’t have his best stuff. He had a lot of guts today and he’s thrown a lot of innings for us already,” Poloni said.
Kelseyville’s coach acknowledged the assist from Lower Lake’s foul-ups on the basepaths but added, “We had a couple of guys thrown out at the plate.”
“Maybe we did, but we didn’t,” McCarthy replied when told by a reporter that his team played well enough to win the game.
Wickard struck out two and walked three in a losing cause.
While the win was not to Poloni’s liking, he quipped. “We’re not going to send it back.”
The Knights are now 5-2 overall while Lower Lake drops to 4-2.
Kelseyville hits the road next Tuesday to play defending league champion Clear Lake while Lower Lake is home against Middletown. Both games start at 4 p.m.
