ST. HELENA >> The Kelseyville High School varsity baseball team purposely ran into a couple of outs to end the top of the fifth inning on a rainy Friday afternoon in St. Helena.
Kelseyville batted around against St. Helena, scoring eight times in the fifth to open up an 11-0 lead, and Knights head coach Lou Poloni wanted to make sure the Saints got their turn at bat in the bottom of the fifth to make it an official game with the rain falling.
“I wanted them to bat and get those three outs,” Poloni said.
Had the game been called after 4 ½ innings, it wouldn’t have counted in the standings.
Winning pitcher Logan Barrick worked a quick fifth to register a four-hit shutout and complete the 11-0 North Central League I victory. He struck out three and walked one.
While St. Helena plays on an all-weather field, the playing conditions weren’t great given that rain fell throughout much of the game.
“They had to pull us off the field once,” Poloni said. “It was a tough mound with the clay and we had to wear different cleats (because of the artificial surface).”
Kelseyville, now 3-0 in the league standings and 11-1-1 overall, gave Barrick a lead to work with in the top of the first inning. In fact, Barrick doubled home the first first run of the game after Adrian Villalobos (2-for-3) worked a long at-bat for a walk to lead off the game. He stole second and continued on to third base because no one was covering the bag. Barrick stole third after his RBI double and scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
“It was nice to start the game with two quick runs like that,” Poloni said.
The Knights added a run in the top of the third to go up 3-0. They sent 12 batters to the plate in the fifth and Kyle Elllis (3-for-4, three RBIs) had a pair of run-scoring singles in the inning.
Kelseyville finished with 10 hits and didn’t commit an error on defense.
“We swang the bat well,” Poloni said. “They (Saints) have a lefty who is pretty good.”
Jonah Lewis (1-for-2) knocked in a pair of runs for the Knights and Kyle Ashworth and Randy Pfann both added hits and RBIs.
Kelseyville has won 17 straight league games dating back to last season.
The Knights return home Tuesday to play Willits and are home again next Friday to play Fort Bragg.
