MIDDLETOWN — After struggling to beat the Lower Lake Trojans 1-0 in their first North Central League I meeting back on April 2 in Lower Lake, the Middletown High School varsity baseball team made sure there was no such drama this time around.
Drake Harbison went 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs and Isaac Perez (3-for-3) hit a three-run home as the Mustangs cruised to a 16-4 victory over the Trojans in five innings on Friday afternoon at Wes Martin Field.
Middletown (7-3 league, 12-7 overall) remains two games behind Fort Bragg (9-1) in the league standings. Both teams have four games remaining, including a Feb. 9 meeting at Middletown, the final game of the regular season for both teams. Fort Bragg rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh inning to beat Cloverdale 5-2 on Friday.
The Mustangs pounded out 15 hits against a trio of Lower Lake pitchers, including two of their best in starter Mike Taliaferro and reliever Joe Boyd.
“Those Middletown bats are pretty hot right now,” Lower Lake coach James Jones said. “They’re swinging the bats pretty good.”
You’ll get no argument from Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn.
“Harbison had a great day. Several guys are coming around. Perez is working his way back up,” Hoogendoorn said. “Guys have been picking it up.”
Helped along by numerous Lower Lake errors, the Mustangs put this game away early, scoring three runs in the first inning, four in the second and eight in the third for a 15-0 lead.
Keegan Cutting, the first of three Middletown pitchers, picked up the win after working the first three innings. He allowed one run, struck out four and walked one.
Bobby Cruz went 2-for-2 with a triple for Lower Lake and Boyd hit a two-run homer against reliever Perez. Jack Klein (1-for-3) and Vann Wilkins (1-for-3) drove in the Trojans’ other runs.
For Middletown, players with multiple hits besides Harbison and Perez were Will Aden (2-for-4, 2 RBIs) and Aidan Skinner (2-for-4, 2 RBIs).
Lower Lake is on the road Monday to play Willits. Middletown travels to Cloverdale on Tuesday.
In other baseball action Friday:
Kelseyville 8, Willits 2
At Willits, Cooper Goff went 3-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs and winning pitcher Jeremy Brown (2-for-4) drove in two more runs as the Kelseyville Knights used a five-run fourth inning to pull away from and beat the winless Wolverines (0-9, 0-14).
Coming off a tough start in his previous outing against Lower Lake, a 4-1 loss, the sophomore Brown pitched a complete-game six-hitter, striking out eight and walking two.
“He was great,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said. “He really had command of both sides of the plate and he mixed his pitches well.”
Kelseyville (8-3, 12-7) scored a run in the top of the first inning and nursed that lead into the fourth when RBI singles by Brown and Adrian Sprague, a two-run triple to left-center field off the bat of Goff, and a Chase Larsen RBI groundout pushed the Knights’ advantage to 6-0.
Both teams scored runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
Poloni said he used the opportunity against the struggling Wolverines to play players who haven’t seen the field much this season. Adrian Sprague went 1-for-3 with a RBI and Roman Aceves went 1-for-2.
Kelseyville returns to action Tuesday against Clear Lake in Lakeport.
St. Helena 12, Clear Lake 1 (6 inn.)
At Lakeport, the St. Helena Saints snapped a two-game league losing streak in decisive fashion, routing the Clear Lake Cardinals behind a trio of four-run outbursts in the second, third and sixth innings.
St. Helena improved to 7-4 in the NCL I standings while Clear Lake fell to 2-8 and 4-12 overall.
“They beat us up, I don’t know what else there is to say,” Clear Lake assistant coach Ed Pepper said of the way the Saints manhandled the Cardinals, who managed just two hits and got their only run in the bottom of the third inning when Chris White was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Pepper said it was another in a long line of less-than-enthusiastic efforts by the Cardinals, who are now guaranteed to finish under .500 in league play.
“No drive, no spirit,” Pepper said. “Pretty much the same old story.”
The Saints banged out 11 hits, many of them gappers, according to Pepper.
“It’s just been one of those seasons for us,” he said.
Clear Lake hosts Kelseyville on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Credo 9, Upper Lake 4
At Rohnert Park, Credo built a 8-0 lead and held off the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL II action under the lights.
“We started making some adjustments, we just started making them too late,” Upper Lake coach Brian Milhaupt said. “I give my kids lots of credit. They hung in there and battled.”
Losing pitcher Diego Velasco (2-for-3) drove in three of the Cougars’ runs with a two-run double during a three-run fifth inning and with a RBI single in the seventh. Armando Santos also had two hits.
Velasco worked the first three innings on the mound, allowing five runs, before giving way to Santos, who pitched the final three innings.
“I’m very happy with the way they played,” Milhaupt said of the Cougars. “I wish we would have played that will in our last two games against Sonoma Academy (both five-inning losses).”
Credo improved to 8-2 in the league standings while Upper Lake fell to 5-5 and 6-8 overall.
JV baseball
Middletown 15, Lower Lake 1 (6 inn.)
At Lower Lake, Cole Ketchum allowed no earned runs over 5 2/3 innings while striking out seven as Middletown blasted Lower Lake in a junior varsity game called after six innings because of the 10-run rule.
Hunter Blair went 4-for-5 for the Mustangs (6-4, 10-6), Micah Dymer went 3-for-4, and Noah Williams went 2-for-3.
Middletown hosts St. Vincent in a non-league game Saturday at 2 p.m.
