KELSEYVILLE >> Hunter Hennigh didn’t need more than a run on Tuesday to beat Kelseyville, but the gift of a four-run first made his job that much easier as St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda shut out the Knights 4-0 in the semifinal round of the North Coast Section Divison IV baseball playoffs at Lloyd Larson Field in Kelseyville.
Hennigh, a hard-throwing senior right-hander, overwhelmed the Knights (24-2-1) in his six innings on the mound, leaving the game with a no-hitter still intact after striking out 10 and walking four. Joseph Boyden finished up, allowing a clean single to Jason Gentle with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
“He threw well,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said of the Pilots’ staff ace, who entered the game with 96 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings. “We had a good scouting report on him. His fastball was working, he throws a good split and his curve ball was tough.”
The closest Hennigh came to giving up a hit was a slow grounder to second base off the bat of Adrian Villalobos leading off the Kelseyville first. Villalobos was called out on a bang-bang play. Hennigh did walk two batters in the inning but was able to get out of the mini-jam unscathed.
Such was not the case for Kelseyville starting pitcher Jonah Lewis, who didn’t survive the top of the first. Lewis struggled with his control from the outset and couldn’t pull it together before he was relieved by Gentle with one out, the bases loaded and the Pilots leading 4-0. The senior issued his fourth walk of the inning to Jack Farner to force in a run, at which point Poloni went to his bullpen.
Gentle needed only two pitches to get out of the inning as he got a fly ball to left field that Logan Barrick turned into a double play with a strong throw home to beat the runner who had tagged up at third base.
That was just the start of an amazing performance by Gentle, who was exceptional the rest of the way. He ended up throwing a virtual complete game — 6 2/3 innings — while allowing only four hits and no runs.
“He was great,” Poloni said. “He kept us within four and gave us a chance. “Maybe I should have started him although I don’t think I really would have changed my mind on starting Jonah, he’s done such a good job for us all season.”
Of course, even if Gentle had started the game there was still the matter of the Knights scoring at least one run.
“It doesn’t matter too much who you pitch if you’re going to get one-hit,” Poloni said.
Hennigh retired the Knights in order only twice — the second and fourth innings — but was never in any real danger. He allowed a one-out walk to Villalobos in the third, had a runner reach in the fifth on a throwing error by his catcher after striking out Kyle Ashworth, and allowed a leadoff walk to Kyle Ellis in the sixth, an inning that ended when Ellis was thrown out trying to steal second.
Facing Boyden in the seventh, Gentle singled with one out and Jacob Beck walked. With the eighth and ninth batters in the Kelseyville lineup due up next, Poloni said he was hoping the Knights could get back to the top of their lineup.
For a brief moment it looked like that would happen. Ashworth blooped a ball in shallow center field for what appeared to be a single, but Beck hesitated on the play, not knowing if the ball would be caught, and he was forced at second base by the center fielder, leaving the Knights with runners at the corners. Randy Pfann chopped a slow roller to shortstop and was thrown out on a bang-bang play at first to end the game.
“It would have been nice to at least get the tying run to the plate,” Poloni said. “Jacob was in a tough spot there and the center fielder sold it pretty well (looking as if he would catch the ball easily).”
St. Joseph Notre Dame (19-8), the No. 3 seed in the Division IV field to Kelseyville’s No. 2, moves on to the sectional championship game either Friday or Saturday against No. 13 seed St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo, a 6-5 upset winner over No. 1 St. Mary’s in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
Kelseyville, the undefeated North Central League I champion for the second year in a row and a winner of 23 straight entering Tuesday’s contest, has now reached the semifinals two years in a row only to come away empty each time.
“It’s really tough to get here, really tough to get back here,” Poloni said. “It’s kind of like the white whale I’m continually chasing. It would have been nice to get into the championship game at least once.”
As a popular baseball cliché goes, there’s always next year, just maybe not for Poloni, who hasn’t decided if he’ll return for another season as head coach.
“I have to sit down with Scott (Conrad) and Matt (Cockerton) and talk things over with them before I make my decision,” Poloni said of Kelseyville High’s athletic director and principal. “I plan to keep coaching, but I’m not sure what I’ll be doing (head coach, assistant, etc.). Maybe it won’t be at Kelseyville.”
As Kelseyville’s longtime head coach, Poloni said he wasn’t sure how this year’s team would top what last year’s team accomplished (20-3 overall record, 14-0 league season, semifinal berth), but the 2017 Knights did all of that and won four additional games.
“We lost our last game on Feb. 25 and we didn’t lose against until today (May 30),” Poloni said of this year’s team. “We almost went 100 days without losing. We played 19 games against teams in the playoffs and went 16-2-1 against those teams. That’s pretty incredible.”
If it was Poloni’s last game as Kelseyville’s head coach, he said he was blessed to have such a “fun group” of players.
“I would roll with this group until August or September if I could,” Poloni said.
The incredible progress made by a handful of players makes it all worthwhile, according to Poloni.
“Earlier in the season we were excited if Gentle fouled off a pitch let alone hit the baseball somewhere,” Poloni joked. “We didn’t think (Junior) Gonzalez could play first base. And Randy Pfann really came a long way as our catcher. All these younger guys getting better is pretty exciting.”
Exciting enough for Poloni to return for at least one more season as head coach?
“We’ll see,” he said.
Game notes: Hennigh was up around 100 pitches when he left the game. “He was throwining between 80-84 miles per hour,” Poloni said. Hennigh also went 2-for-4 with a double and a RBI for the Pilots, who probably appreciated the very Alameda-like weather conditions at Kelseyville, where it was unseasonably cool for a May 30 game and with an overcast sky … Lewis faced eight batters in the top of the first and seven reached base. “I though if he had gotten a call or two (from the home plate umpire) it might have been different. Instead of being down 3-1 in the count, it would have been 2-2 and he might have been able to get a couple of those batters.” Lewis was charged with Kelseyville’s only two losses in 2017 … Kelseyville lost 2-1 to Arcata in last year’s semifinal round played at Arcata.
