LAKE COUNTY — The wet weather that played havoc with North Coast high school baseball and softball teams throughout the month of March and into early April returned with a vengeance this week, forcing the North Coast Section to reschedule four of its six Division IV baseball first-round games and all four Division V softball quarterfinal-round games.
Affected by the most recent round of inclement and inconvenient weather were the Kelseyville Knights in baseball and the Clear Lake Cardinals in softball. Middletown’s baseball team avoided a scheduling conflict by playing its first-round game against St. Helena in Division IV on Tuesday instead of Wednesday when the latest atmospheric river plowed into Northern California.
Kelseyville’s first-round game with Redwood Christian, the defending Division IV champion, was moved from Wednesday night to Friday at 5 p.m. at the San Leandro BallPark in San Leandro. Clear Lake’s quarterfinal-round meeting with St. Bernard of Eureka, originally scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. in Lakeport, will instead take place Friday at 5 p.m. in Lakeport as the weather forecast calls for a break in the stormy weather before another round of rain arrives Saturday.
Baseball
You only have to go back to last season the find the last time No. 9 seed Kelseyville (13-9) and No. 8 Redwood Christian (17-7) met in the playoffs. The Eagles began their four-game playoff match to the Division IV title with a 10-1 first-round win at the same location they’ll play the Knights on Friday. Kelseyville, fourth in the North Central League I this season, managed just two hits in last year’s meeting while committing five errors, never a good ratio. The Eagles placed third in the Bay Counties League-East, just one game behind co-champions Athenian and St. Joseph Notre Dame.
The winner hits the road to play No. 1 seed McKinleyville (20-3) at a day and time to be determined. Quarterfinal-round games were originally scheduled to take place Saturday but the condition of McKinleyville’s field after several days of rainfall might force a postponement.
No. 6 seed Middletown (16-8), a 3-2 winner over St. Helena in first-round action Tuesday at Wes Martin Field in Middletown, has reached the quarterfinal round for the third year in a row. The Mustangs are scheduled to play No. 3 seed St. Patrick-St. Vincent (13-7) on Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School in Vallejo.
The same two teams met in the quarterfinal round of the 2017 playoffs, the Bruins beating the Mustangs 12-2 in five innings at Middletown.
A victory puts either Middletown or St. Patrick-St. Vincent into next week’s semifinals against one of three different teams. A first-round game Friday between No. 7 Piedmont and No. 10 Lick-Wilmerding will determine who plays No. 2 Arcata in the quarterfinals.
Softball
No. 4 seed Clear Lake (17-5) will have been off for nine days when it finally meets No. 5 St. Bernard (10-9) in the quarterfinals of the skeletal Division V softball playoffs, which had room to accommodate 16 teams but ended up fielding only nine. The top seven seeds received first-round byes and only one first-round game was necessary, a wild one as it turned out as No. 8 California School for the Deaf outslugged No. 9 Urban 16-15.
The Clear Lake-St. Bernard winner plays the winner of No. 1 St. Vincent vs. California School for the Deaf in next week’s semifinals on a day, time and location to be determined.
All four quarterfinal-round games were pushed back from Saturday to Friday to take advantage of a window in the weather. No. 2 Hoopa plays No. 7 University while No. 3 Credo takes on No. 6 Head-Royce in the other half of the Division V bracket.
Clear Lake is gunning for its first section softball title since 2015 and its fourth overall. The Cardinals also won it all in 2002 and 2007. They were a perfect 27-0 in 2007.
