MIDDLETOWN >> Pitchers Thomas Cook and Luke Holt held El Molino’s bats in check and the opportunistic Middletown Mustangs made the Lions pay for the awful third inning they played on Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division IV baseball playoffs at Wes Martin Field in Middletown.
Middletown, the No. 1 seed in the Division IV field, won 3-1 to earn another home game on Wednesday, this time against No. 4 Piedmont in the semifinals at 5 p.m. at Wes Martin Field. If the Mustangs (19-3) beat the Highlanders (18-9), they’ll advance to the Division IV championship game on Saturday and face the winner of Wednesday’s other semifinal between No. 6 Redwood Christian and No. 10 St. Mary’s.
It’s the third straight year a Lake County team has reached the Division IV semifinals (Kelseyville did it the last two years) and the Mustangs are trying to become the first county team since Clear Lake in 1998 to win a sectional baseball title.
Not one to look ahead, Middletown coach Jeff Mielke said the Mustangs are only concerned with Piedmont at this point and are just happy to come away with a win against an El Molino team that beat them 17-6 in five innings – their worst loss of the season – on April 4 at Wes Martin Field.
“It was raining, it was miserable and we played terrible,” Mielke said. “This was a redemption kind of thing today. El Molino is a good team, they have speed up and down their lineup.”
The easiest way to find redemption in baseball is pitching and Cook and Holt, both seniors, were on their game Saturday. Cook, a control pitcher who keeps batters off balance with a selection of breaking pitches, worked six innings and allowed four hits, one unearned run, struck out two and walked three.
“We rode a great pitching performance today from Tommy,” Mielke said. “He eats up innings.”
Holt, a hard thrower who doesn’t worry about fooling hitters, set the Lions down in order in the top of the seventh on nine pitches. After striking out the leadoff hitter, he got a routine flyball to right field and a comebacker to end the game.
With three off days between quarterfinal and semifinal, the Mustangs have several pitching options going into the Piedmont game and Mielke said he hadn’t decided who is going to start – Cook, Holt or Keegan Cutting.
“It’s nice to have options,” Mielke said.
Middletown’s offense didn’t generate a ton of offense against El Molino’s two pitchers – starter Patrick Atkinson, who lasted only two innings and took the loss, and reliever Jack Belli, who went the rest of the way – but as the Mustangs have shown much of the season, they don’t need a big game at the plate to get the win. They’ve played in nine one-run games to date this season and won eight. They’re also 2-0in two-run games, including Saturday’s contest with El Molino.
El Molino supplied much of the fuel for its own demise in the bottom of the second inning. Two of the first three Mustangs to bat in the inning reached on errors. Jon Hoogendoorn Jr. followed with a crisp single to right field that looked like it what going to load the bases, but when El Molino’s right fielder had trouble coming up with the ball, one run scored. Aiden Skinner was then hit by a pitch to load the bases. A balk on Atkinson forced home a run. Drake Harbison was then intentionally walked to reload the bases with still just one out, but a wild pitch brought home the third run of the inning. A 5-3-6 double play ended the threat, but the damage had been done.
El Molino got one of those runs back in the top of the third and used a similar formula to score as two of the first three Lions to bat in the inning reached base on errors. Wesley Hamner’s RBI double made it 3-1 but Cook worked out of further damage aided by a 8-3-6 double play and an inning-ending three-pitch strikeout.
Saturday’s game was played in two distinct stages. The first, which lasted 2 ½ innings, saw the Mustangs and Lions each commit four errors. The second – from the bottom of the third on – saw no errors and some great defense by both teams.
“It was pretty ragged to begin with but we put it together,” Mielke said of the Mustangs’ play in the field, which included a pair of double plays, including a 6-4-3 twin killing after Jordan Hamner led off the El Molino sixth with a single. That play looked even bigger when the next two Lions reached on a a walk and a single, but shortstop Isaiah Moore gloved a soft line drive off the bat of pinch-hitter Thomas Siegert to end the inning.
The defensive gem of the game also involved Moore, who appeared to have an extra-base hit leading off the bottom of the third when he tied into an 0-2 pitch from Belli, but the Lions’ right-fielder, who was retreating in an all-out sprint toward the fence with his back to the infield, leaped at the last second and caught the ball at the top of the leap.
Middletown finished with five hits, three of them by Hoogendoorn, who went 3-for-3 with three solid singles from the seventh spot in the Mustangs’ batting order. The junior could be moving up in the batting order for the Piedmont game, according to Mielke.
“He’s really making me raise my eyebrows,” Mielke said. “He’s one of my grinders. Whatever is asked of him he does it.”
Mielke isn’t kidding, either. He said Hoogendoorn was helping run the field scoreboard earlier this season.
Game notes: Jack Bliss and Justin MacDowell had the Mustangs’ other hits … Along with losing to El Molino at home 17-6 on April 4, the Mustangs also beat the Lions 6-5 on March 19 in Forestville … The last time Middletown made it to a sectional championship game in baseball? That would be 1992 under the old Class A format when head coach Wes Martin, who the Middletown field is named after, guided the Mustangs to the championship game against University High School of San Francisco. Unfortunately, Middletown had pretty much used up all of its pitching in a 4-2 upset of No. 1 seed Fort Bragg in the semifinals and ended up losing 13-1 to University in the championship game at Anton Stadium in Ukiah.
