ALBANY >> Playoff meetings between No. 8 and No. 9 seeds are usually competitive and can go either way, but not this time.
Kelseyville High School’s softball team, runner-up in the North Central League I this season, spent far more time traveling to and from Albany than it did beating the Panthers 22-9 in five innings on Tuesday in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV postseason tournament. Next up for the No. 9 Knights (17-4) is a quarterfinal-round game Friday at 4 p.m. against No. 1 seed St. Joseph Notre Dame (19-2) at Leydecker Park in Alameda.
Kelseyville and St. Joseph Notre Dame had one common opponent during the regular season, none other than NCL I champion Cloverdale, which handed the Pilots one of their only two regular-season losses with a 13-11 victory on March 13 in Alameda. Kelseyville fell 4-1 and 8-4 to Cloverdale in two league meetings.
Kelseyville coach Phil Psalmonds said he didn’t expect to open the playoffs on the road, not with a 16-4 regular-season record and after a second-place finish to Cloverdale, the No. 1 seed in Division V.
“I was thinking a five or six seed, but it is what it is,” Psalmonds said.
The Knights had only seven hits in a game where they scored twice in the first inning, eight times in the second inning and six times in each of the third and fourth innings.
“How do you score 22 runs with only seven hits?” Psalmonds said.
The answer is when the opposing pitcher walks 17 of your batters and hits another six.
“She couldn’t find the strike zone,” Psalmonds said of the St. Mary’s pitcher, who went the distance. “It was windy down there, overcast and cold. The wind was gusting up to 15 or 20 mph. Our girls couldn’t wait to get out of there.”
No. 8 St. Mary’s (10-8) also scored in each of its first four at-bats but could do no more than three runs worth of damage in any single inning. While the Knights committed four errors and the Panthers finished the game with 10 hits, winning pitcher Allison Bryant issued only three walks while striking out two.
“She did a good job of locating her pitches,” Psalmonds said.
With so many walks and hit batsmen in the game, there were some unusual batting lines, but none more so than Paige Bour’s official 0-for-0 day at the plate for the Knights. In her five plate appearances, she drew walks each of the first two times and was hit by a pitch the next three times. Bour also scored four runs.
Grace Davidson went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Bryant went 2-for-4 with three runs scored. Bailey Couey, Taylor Paulich and Kaleigh Nunn had the other Kelseyville hits.
With another road trip looming Friday against the top-seeded St. Joseph Notre Dame squad, the 2016 Division V champion and 2015 Division V runner-up, Psalmonds said he couldn’t guarantee a victory but did say, “We’re gonna show up. You’ve got to play the game.”
In other first-round playoff games Tuesday:
Piedmont 10, Middletown 0 (5 inn.)
At Piedmont, first-year coach Bob Gunion and the Middletown Mustangs closed out their season with a five-inning loss to the Piedmont Highlanders in the opening round of the Division IV playoffs.
Middletown, the No. 11 seed in the 14-team field, closes out the 2018 campaign at 10-10. It was certainly an up-and-down season for the Mustangs and their new coach. After losing their first three games in lopsided fashion, they won six of their next seven, including a 5-1 start in North Central League I play. They ended up tied for third with Clear Lake and Fort Bragg at 8-6.
No game statistics were reported to the Record-Bee.
Laytonville 11, Upper Lake 0 (6 inn.)
At Laytonville, the undefeated Laytonville Warriors (19-0) ended Upper Lake’s season with a six-inning victory in the opening round of the Division V playoffs.
The game got off to a rough start for Upper Lake, which lost its starting pitcher before she had thrown a single pitch. Julia Mooney was attempting to score in the top of the first inning when she collided with the Laytonville catcher and was ejected, ending the four-year veteran’s season and career.
According to Upper Lake coach Nick Williamson, the home plate umpire ruled that Mooney made no attempt to avoid contact, which Williamson didn’t agree with.
With Mooney out of the game, the Cougars had to shuffle their lineup. Katlyn Minnis came on to pitch and worked all 5 1/3 innings before the game was halted because of the 10-run mercy rule in the bottom of the sixth. She struck out two and walked six. Backup catcher Hailey Reams picked off two Laytonville runners at third base.
“They all kept their heads up and played hard,” Williamson said. “You can’t ask for much more than that.”
Upper Lake was trailing 3-0 in the top of the third when Coleen Pulido, who had tripled with one out, was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a grounder to the Laytonville shortstop.
“I thought she beat the tag,” Williamson said. “She went hard, all out from third.”
Minnis had the Cougars’ only other hit, a single in the second inning.
The Cougars went 5-10 under Upper Lake’s first-year coach.
“They gave what they had,” he said of the 2018 Upper Lake roster.
Laytonville advances to the quarterfinal round against No. 4 seed Hoopa on Friday.
