FORT BRAGG >> Winning pitcher Logan Barrick escaped a handful of jams to toss a five-hit shutout and the Kelseyville Knights clinched no worse than a tie for the North Central League I varsity baseball championship with a 4-0 victory over the Fort Bragg Timberwolves on Tuesday afternoon in Fort Bragg.
It also was the 20th win of the season for the Knights (12-0 league, 20-1-1 overall), marking the second straight season they’ve won at least a share of the league championship and 20 games.
“It puts us in a good position,” Kelseyville head coach Lou Poloni said of the victory, which maintains the Knights’ two-game lead over Middletown (10-2) in the standings with two games remaining for both teams. “It gives us a little wiggle room and it also gives us the opportunity to win it at home (the undisputed championship) on Friday.”
Kelseyville hosts Middletown on Friday before closing out the regular season on Tuesday in Cloverdale. The Knights need one more win or one more Middletown loss to secure the undisputed league title for a second year in a row. If they win their final two games, they’ll finish 14-0 for a second straight season.
Kelseyville scored all of its runs against Fort Bragg in the top of the third inning. Dustin Hawley reached on an error and was sacrificed to second base by Randy Pfann.
“It had the feeling of a 1-0 game, so we wanted to get that run,” Poloni said of his decision to have Pfann lay down a bunt instead of hit away.
Poloni’s strategy worked as Adrian Villalobos followed with a RBI single to right-center field. As Pfann was beating the throw home, Villalobos advanced to second. Kyle Ellis singled Villalobos over to third base and Barrick singled home Villalobos for a 2-0 lead. The Knights executed a double steal before Jonah Lewis singled home Ellis and Barrick to make it 4-0.
Fort Bragg loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth but Barrick struck out the seventh, eighth and ninth hitters in the Timberwolves’ batting order to escape unscathed. Fort Bragg threatened again in the fifth, putting its first two batters on base only to be denied again as Barrick retired the next three hitters on a fly ball, popup and groundout. The Timberwolves had something going again in the seventh until the Knights turned an around-the-horn double play.
Earlier in the game Fort Bragg threatened in the bottom of the second when the Knights committed their only two errors of the game, but Barrick worked out of the jam.
“Barrick had to do some serious wiggling,” Poloni said of his staff ace, who is now 11-0 on the season with nine complete games.
The hard-throwing right-hander struck out 10 and walked two.
Ellis and Lewis each finished with two hits for the Knights, who had seven in all.
Game notes: Poloni won’t be with Kelseyville during its final two league games. He is flying to Hawaii on Friday so that he can attend son Geno’s graduation from the University of Hawaii on Saturday morning. Assistant coach Billy Shaul will fill in as head coach both games … Kelseyville’s league win streak is now at 26 games dating back through last season … Barrick has struck out 92 and issued only 16 walks in 80 innings. He threw 105 pitches in the win over Fort Bragg and won’t be available to pitch on Friday against Middletown, which closes out its regular season next Tuesday in Fort Bragg (9-3).
