KELSEYVILLE >> After sleepwalking at the plate through the first three innings against the St. Helena Saints — only one hit and one baserunner — the Kelseyville Knights discovered the benefits of hitting hard grounders on their dirt infield at Lloyd Larson Field.
Some of them found their way into the outfield for hits while still others ate up St. Helena’s infielders on Friday afternoon as the Knights blanked the Saints 5-0 behind a two-hitter from winning pitcher Noah Lyndall.
“Once we started putting the ball in play, hitting it hard on the ground, good things started to happen,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said. “We put a little pressure on their defense.”
St. Helena squandered early scoring chances against Lyndall with some bad baserunning in the first two innings and that proved a fatal mistake because once the hard-throwing senior settled into a groove, there was no touching him. Lyndall retired the final 10 batters he faced , striking out four of them. He didn’t allow a hit after the third batter of the game.
“I thought Noah got better as the game went on,” Poloni said of Lyndall, who finished with six strikeouts and five walks.
“Him and Logan (Barrick) are pretty tough, they give us a good one-two punch,” Poloni said with an eye toward the North Central League I race, which Kelseyville and Cloverdale now lead with 3-0 records.
Kelseyville finally broke through against St. Helena starter Dominic Collins in the bottom of the fourth inning, which began when Kyle Ellis reached on an error after his grounder to shortstop produced a low throw to first base that pulled the first baseman off the bag. Lyndall drew a walk but Barrick popped up into a double play play while trying to lay down a sacrifice bunt. With Ellis standing at second base with two outs, Sambhava Baird smashed a hard grounder that St. Helena’s third baseman couldn’t handle and it trickled into shallow left field as Ellis raced home with the only run Lyndall would need as things turned out.
The Knights’ next two runs, part of a three-run fifth inning, were a bit more dramatic. Ellis, Kelseyville’s junior shortstop, was once again in the middle of it all.
With one out in the fifth, Randy Pfann singled to right field. With two outs, Adrian Villalobos, the Knights’ freshman leadoff hitter, singled to send Pfann to second base. Ellis followed with a booming triple into the right-center field gap, both Pfann and Villalobos easily scoring on the three-bagger.
“Most players their power is to left field, but his power is to the opposite field,” Poloni said of Ellis. “He hits them deep in practice all the time. He’s been working hard and it’s really starting to pay off for him.”
Ellis scored the final run of the inning when Lyndall’s hard grounder to the shortstop produced another rushed throw that pulled the first baseman off the bag for another error.
Kelseyville picked up an insurance run in the sixth when Zack Villalobos was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
While pleased with the win, Poloni said the Knights have a long way to go in the league race — 11 more games to be exact.
“We’re going to hit some bumps in the road,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of things to improve on, but the good thing is we haven’t peaked yet.”
Kelseyville’s seven hits were spread out among seven different players.
St. Helena’s offense amounted to a single by Alex Archer leading off the game and another single by John Wheeler two batters later.
Collins lasted 5 1/3 innings and took the loss. He struck out five and walked one.
