KELSEYVILLE >> They could pitch, play defense and come up with the timely hit, but just how good were the 2016 Knights compared to so many other quality Kelseyville High School teams coached by varsity baseball skipper Lou Poloni?
“That’s tough to say … they could be No. 1,” Poloni said.
At 20-3 overall, including 14-0 in the North Central League I standings and 2-1 in the brutal North Coast Section Division IV playoffs, the Knights proved to be that irresistible force during the recently completed baseball season. Tenacious to say the least, Kelseyville barely missed qualifying for the Division IV championship game, something no county team has ever come close to doing.
Leading the way as always was the ultra-positive Poloni, who is the Lake County Record-Bee boys’ sports Coach of the Year for the 2015-16 high school season.
What were some of the intangibles that made the Knights greater than the sum of their parts, which included the dynamic pitching combination of junior Logan Barrick (12-2) and Noah Lyndall (8-1) and the slick fielding and solid hitting from shortstop Kyle Ellis?
“One intangible was they were fearless for sure,” Poloni said of his players. “I’ve had more talented teams in the playoffs that got to where we were but were just happy to be there. Not these guys. I had a lot of seniors and this was the last stop for them on the BART train … this was the Richmond station. No championships in four years and this was their last shot. They wanted to win it (league and section) and they meant it.”
Injuries and academic disqualification left Poloni with a smaller-than-normal roster and forced him to move pieces all around the diamond. Lyndall, a standout third baseman, had to move behind the plate on the days he wasn’t pitching — as did Barrick — because the team lost its starting catcher.
“(Zack) Villalobos ends up at third base and has a great year for us,” Poloni said. “If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that Zack Villalobos was going to have the kind of year he had, I might not have believed you.”
Villalobos wasn’t the only player who stepped up his game when it mattered most for the Knights, who took a 17-game winning streak into their season-ending 2-1 semifinal-round playoff to Arcata.
“Devin Dugger had some huge hits for us and Nick Pfann, his numbers weren’t good but he gave us a couple of huge hits. Asa Peters did the same,” Poloni said of his starting outfielders.
Moving 14-year-old freshman Adrian Villalobos to second base, where he quickly settled in as the starter, was another Poloni move that turned into pure gold.
“He only had one or two errors and he had game-winning hits or game-winning runs in four different games,” Poloni added.
Not all of the Knights came out of nowhere. The team’s veteran core of Lyndall, Barrick, Ellis and Sambhava Baird (first baseman) lived up to its advance billing.
Was there a team leader?
“Noah was the straw that stirred the drink for us with his complete unselfishness,” Poloni said. “He set the tone for the team we ended up being.”
And what kind of team would that be?
“Overachievers,” Poloni said. “Everyone on the team contributed at some point, with the bat or the glove and sometimes both. That’s what you need.”
And while not all of his players were a perfect fit for the position they played, Poloni said the Knights simply adapted without complaining.
“When you lose players like we did to injuries or grades, you can make excuses or let it be a motivating factor,” Poloni said. “We didn’t make excuses.”
Drawing on a children’s Christmas television show to describe his 2016 squad, Poloni said, “We were like the Island of Misfit Toys. They weren’t shiny or pretty. They just got after it.”
