UKIAH >> If you’re looking for a recipe success, simply bring together seniors from Lake County’s five high school varsity baseball teams and let them do their thing.
That was the case on Sunday when the East squad (also known as the Lake County squad) hammered out an 11-3 victory in the ninth annual Senior All-Star Baseball Game at Mendocino College in Ukiah. Seniors from Clear Lake, Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown and Upper Lake – all but those from Kelseyville now graduated – came together not as opponents but as teammates to beat the West squad, which consisted of players from other North Central League I schools located outside of Lake County as well as a sprinkling of NCL II (Tech) and NCL III (Laytonville) players.
Kelseyville head coach Lou Poloni led the East squad, which certainly featured plenty of familiar faces, including winning pitcher Logan Barrick of Kelseyville. The hard-throwing right-hander worked the first seven innings of the nine-inning game and left with a 5-2 lead, striking out 10 along the way. While the victory won’t count toward his recently completed high school season, which featured a Lake County single-season-best 13-0 record, he was every bit as dominant against the West squad as he was during the 2017 season while helping the Knights go undefeated in league play and reach the North Coast Section Division IV semifinals for a second year in a row.
Barrick also doubled twice and walked. He was staked to a 1-0 lead before he took the mound in the bottom of the first and the East squad never looked back.
While Barrick was the pitching star for the East before giving way to relievers Ryan Damiata of Clear Lake in the eighth and Trevor LaFave of Middletown in the ninth, it was Clear Lake’s Cody Dillsaver who delivered two of the game’s biggest hits, a pair of two-run doubles.
The East parlayed three-run innings in the sixth, seventh and ninth into a commanding 11-2 lead. The West was limited to single runs in the third, sixth and ninth innings.
Josue Jaquez, a seldom-used Kelseyville reserve, also had two hits in the win. Ethan Watson (Lower Lake), Reed Diener (Lower Lake), Jordan McGrath (Lower Lake), Jonah Lewis (Kelseyville), LaFave (Middletown), Ezekiel Perez (Middletown) and Max De Leon (Clear Lake) also were credited with hits.
The game, which is free to the public, is sponsored by the Cloverdale American Legion.
