MIDDLETOWN — Jimmy Rockwell pitched a two-hit masterpiece on Wednesday afternoon as the Middletown Mustangs beat the St. Helena Saints 4-0 in a North Central League I varsity baseball game at Wes Martin Field.
The junior struck out 12, walked only two and picked off one.
“He was dominating, there’s no other way to call it,” Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn said. “He had everything going. He pitched his butt off.”
Middletown (6-3 league, 11-7) is now in sole possession of third place in the league standings with five league games remaining. Only Fort Bragg (8-1) and Kelseyville (7-3) have better records as the 2019 race enters its final two weeks.
Whether or not the Mustangs, defending NCL I champions, can catch the Timberwolves, who they have one game left with, really doesn’t concern Hoogendoorn at this point.
“We’re playing for the best playoff seeding we can get,” he said with an eye toward the North Coast Section postseason tournament next month. “We’re just concentrating on our next game (Friday at home against Lower Lake).”
St. Helena (6-4, 10-10) has lost two in a row in league play for the first time this season and is now tied with Cloverdale (6-4) for fourth place. The Saints can blame Rockwell for that, according to Hoogendoorn.
“He had them off-balance all game. He was pounding the strike zone, painting the corners. He had seven backward Ks (called third strikes),” Hoogendoorn added.
Giving Rockwell a lead to work with, even if it wasn’t a big one, made a huge difference, according to Hoogendoorn, who said the Mustangs never had that luxury when they dropped a 5-2 decision at St. Helena back on March 29.
Nico Barrio, who had been mired in a pretty deep slump until the last few games, doubled home two runs in the bottom of the second, which is all the offense Rockwell needed as things turned out.
“That was huge,” Hoogendoorn said of Barrio’s hit. “He’s been hitting well in practices but struggling in games, but in his last three or four games he’s had something like four or five hits, so he’s starting to heat up.”
Rockwell never allowed more than one St. Helena runner to reach base in any given inning and he didn’t allow a runner past second base all game. It remained a 2-0 game until teammate Will Aden doubled that lead with a two-run homer to center field in the bottom of the fifth.
“He hit it about a mile high,” Hoogendoorn said. “I told the boys that if they got the ball up into the air today it would carry out.”
Aden (2-for-4) had the perfect count – 3-1 – before connecting on a fastball up in the strike zone.
“He doesn’t see many fastballs,” Hoogendoorn said.
Isaac Perez went 2-for-3 and scored a run for the Mustangs. Cameron Luis, Keegan Cutting and Tyler Crudo also had hits.
Rockwell threw just 63 of his 97 pitches through the first five innings.
Hoogendoorn considered going to his bullpen in the seventh but stuck with Rockwell.
“He earned the right to be out there,” Hoogendoorn said.
Jon Hoogendoorn Jr., the Middletown catcher, called the pitches for Rockwell the entire way.
“He’s calling the game,” Hoogendoorn said of his son’s effort behind the plate. “He’s been working with Jimmy for years. They work well together.
“This is a sweet one,” Hoogendoorn said of the victory.
In other baseball action Wednesday:
Sonoma Academy 17, Upper Lake 4
At Upper Lake, the Sonoma Academy Coyotes pinned another lopsided five-inning NCL II loss on the Upper Lake Cougars (5-4, 6-7), who dropped below the .500 mark for the season.
The private Santa Rosa school also beat the Cougars 13-3 on Monday.
“We played good defense, it’s just that they hit the ball,” Upper Lake coach Brian Milhaupt said of the Coyotes’ 17 hits, many of which went to the opposite field, something Milhaupt preaches to his own players.
“We were putting the ball where we wanted to but they were taking it the other way or hitting it up the middle,” Milhaupt said. “They pulled very few balls.”
The Coyotes also benefited from simply having a higher baseball acumen that the younger and more inexperienced Cougars.
“They showed up here ready to play and we have not been mentally in the last two games,” said Milhaupt, the Cougars’ first-year coach.
Sonoma Academy grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning against Upper Lake starter Benat Love, who suffered his first league loss (3-1) of the season. The Cougars got one of those runs back on a Desmond Mueller RBI single in the bottom of the first, but the Coyotes banged out an eight-run second inning to take control of the game.
Sonoma Academy added three runs in the third and four more in the top of the fourth to open up a 17-1 lead. Upper Lake scratched out two runs in the bottom of the fourth on a Russell Gordon Jr. two-run single and another in the fifth on a Love RBI single.
Mueller and Love finished with two hits apiece.
Love worked the first two innings on the mound, allowing 10 runs. Dalton Slater pitched the third and fourth before giving way to Mueller, who pitched a scoreless fifth.
Upper Lake can snap its two-game losing streak on Friday when it hits the road to play Credo under the lights at 7:30 p.m.
JV baseball
Middletown 6, St. Helena 1
At Middletown, Wyatt Smith pitched six strong innings for the win, allowing just one hit, and the Middletown junior varsity team beat St. Helena.
Smith and reliever Zach Dubois benefited from a solid outing by the defense, including a pair of double plays and Middletown outfielders throwing out two St. Helena runners at first base.
Justin Urbina sparked the offense with an inside-the-park home run while Cole Ketchum added a RBI double.
The Mustangs are 5-4 in league play and 9-6 overall.
