LAKE COUNTY — It was a tough day on the diamond for the Kelseyville High School varsity baseball team nearly a year ago today during the opening rounds of the Colusa Tournament. As things turned out, it would get a whole lot worse.
Until the COVID-19-delayed 2020-21 sports season starts, the Lake County Record-Bee will take a look back at the local sports happenings of a year ago and the teams and athletes who were making the headlines.
After falling 6-5 to East Nicolaus in a first-round game at Colusa, Kelseyville’s fourth straight one-run loss, the Knights carried a 2-0 lead into the late innings against tournament host Colusa only to watch the Redhawks erupt for a seven-run sixth in a 7-2 victory.
“We’re playing really well for five or six innings,” Kelseyville head coach Lou Poloni said. “Once we figure out how to play seven full, we’ll be OK. It’s pretty much something different every game.”
Starting pitcher Jeremy Brown took a shutout into the top of the sixth against Colusa before things went south, according to Poloni. Brown was eventually replaced by reliever Zayne Barker, who recorded the final two outs, but only after the damage had been done.
“We just fell apart in the sixth,” Poloni said.
The rally began harmlessly enough as Colusa had a runner at second base with one out. That’s when a series of Redhawks batters reached on hits, walks, a hit batsman and errors.
“It just snowballed,” Poloni said.
The game was stopped after six innings because of a tournament time limit.
Matt Harris (1-for-1) and Jacob Jensen (0-for-2) drove in Kelseyville runs in the second and fourth innings to put the Knights up 2-0.
Against East Nicolaus in first-round tournament action, the Spartans, aided by a Kelseyville error, scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to wipe out a 5-4 Kelseyville lead and walk off with the victory.
Harris, working in relief of starter Tyler Linnell, pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning but immediately ran into trouble in the seventh by walking two batters and allowing a double. Linnell worked the first five innings, allowing four runs – three earned – on six hits. He struck out nine and walked three.
Kelseyville took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth when East Nicolaus scored three times against Linnell to tie it. The Knights pushed in front 5-4 with a run in the top of the sixth.
Chase Larsen went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs for Kelseyville. Keithly (1-for-4) and Jonny Rixen (1-for-1) also drove in runs.
The two losses dropped Kelseyville’s record to 1-5 and the Knights never had a chance to better it. Scheduled to return to Colusa for a final-round game on Saturday, March 14, Kelseyville and every other Lake County spring sports team had it seasons halted – and eventually canceled – on March 13 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down high school sports throughout the state.
Upper Lake 35, Potter Valley 0
At Potter Valley, two days after losing 24-0 to Middletown, the Upper Lake Cougars came back to rout the Potter Valley Bearcats in what turned out to be their final game of the 2020 season as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down high school sports the very next day.
“It was good to bounce back,” Upper Lake head coach Brian Milhaupt said. “I can’t ever remember losing by 20 and than beating a team by 20 in a two-day span.”
Dalton Slater went 5-for-5, doubled three times and drove in three runs as part of a 30-hit Upper Lake attack. Jonathon Thiessen went 5-for-6, Cody Banks went 4-for-4 with a double and a triple, and Bradley Sneathen went 2-for-5 with a double, triple and six RBIs.
Diego Velasco, Benat Love, Rocco Bassignani, Cody Snider, Dylan Slater and Russell Gordon added two hits apiece.
After taking a 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the Cougars tallied 18 runs in the second.
The 35 runs scored by the Cougars was 34 more than starting pitcher Love needed to win the game. He went the distance throwing only 69 pitches. He scattered three hits, struck out seven and walked none.
“He pitched great and we played good defense behind him,” Milhaupt said as the Cougars committed only one error.
