SAN LEANDRO — The Kelseyville Knights couldn’t protect a 5-1 lead and watched their season end with a 6-5 loss in eight innings to the Redwood Christian Eagles on Friday evening in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV baseball playoffs at San Leandro BallPark.
Redwood Christian (18-7), the No. 8 seed and defending Division IV champion, advances to the quarterfinals against No. 1 seed McKinleyville (20-3). A date for that game has yet to been set by the section office.
“It was a tough way to lose,” Kelseyville head coach Lou Poloni said of a extra-inning contest that marked the end of the career of four-year varsity starter Adrian Villalobos, who played second base earlier in his career before moving to shortstop.
“He had a great career,” Poloni said of Villalobos, who went 1-for-3 with a double in his final game as a Knight. “He’ll be playing with somebody next year.”
Walks issued (seven) and errors committed (six) snuffed out the Knights’ season.
Kelseyville (13-10) scored four times after two were out in the top of the fifth inning to go up 5-1, but Redwood Christian rallied for three runs in the bottom half, all scoring on consecutive bases-loaded walks – the first two issued by starting pitcher Tyler Linnell and the final one by reliever Jeremy Brown, who ended up taking the loss.
“Even with all that we were still ahead (5-4) by the end of the inning,” Poloni said.
The Eagles pulled even with a run in the sixth, two errors laying the foundation for the game-tying run.
It remained a 5-all game until the bottom of the eighth when a two-out walk led to the winning run. After a stolen base put the runner at second, Redwood Christian walked off with the victory following a single to left field. There was no play at the plate.
“We had a lot of leadoff walks, two-out walks, untimely walks,” Poloni said. “We’ll be kicking ourselves for awhile.”
Kelseyville’s best chance to score after its four-run fifth was in the seventh when the Knights put a runner at third base with two outs only to come up empty.
Kelseyville took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Redwood Christian tied it with a run in the bottom of the third, the only run allowed by Linnell through the first four innings. He ended up going 4 1/3, allowing four runs on two hits with four walks and three strikeouts. Brown pitched the final 3 1/3, striking out one and walking three.
Linnell (2-for-4, RBI) was the only Knight with more than one hit. Brown (1-for-3), Chase Larsen (1-for-4) and Nate Phillips (1-for-3) each had a RBI.
Kelseyville’s final three games of the season all ended up being tough losses against quality opponents – 5-2to Fort Bragg in nine innings, 6-5 to Middletown and 6-5 to Redwood Christian. Middletown has already advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Division IV playoffs. Fort Bragg and El Molino were tied 1-1 after 11 innings when their first-round game was suspended because of darkness on Friday. That game will need to be completed between the winner faces St. Mary’s in the quarterfinals.
