KELSEYVILLE — The hits, runs and wins will come for the Kelseyville Knights at some point, it just wasn’t on Monday afternoon as Colusa continued its domination of Lake County baseball teams with a 10-0 victory at Lloyd Larson Field in Kelseyville.
All of Colusa’s wins this season are against Lake County teams. The Redhawks (7-0) have now swept home-and-away series with Kelseyville, Clear Lake and Middletown, and have one victory against Lower Lake. They went 6-0 last season, including 3-0 against Lake County schools, before the COVID-19 pandemic intervened, and 23-8 in 2019 when they went 1-0 against county teams.
So you might say Colusa has Lake County’s number, at least in recent years.
“We really enjoy playing against them, too,” Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul said of the Redhawks, who shut out his club 2-0 earlier this month in Colusa, which was Kelseyville’ season opener and only other game until Monday. “They are fundamentally well coached and their kids are super respectful.”
Kelseyville (0-2) could end up playing Colusa again sometime next month, according to Shaul, who said he has talked with Redhawks head coach Eric Lay about scheduling another non-league game.
In the short term, the Knights are still looking for their first run of 2021, which is a prerequisite to win any game no matter how well your pitching and defense play.
“You can’t win a game not scoring a run,” Shaul said. “You have to put pressure on a pitcher, no matter how good he is. You have to give yourself a chance.”
And that wasn’t the case on Monday as winning pitcher Drew Bradbury worked six shutout innings for the victory. The left-hander faced the minimum nine batters through the first three innings, striking out six of them. To their credit, the Knights did begin to figure out Bradbury starting in the fourth inning when they put runners on the corners with one out only to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
“The plate appearances were better in their second and third at-bats,” Shaul said of his players. “We made adjustments to be on time on his fastball.”
Kelseyville loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth after two were out, and put single runners aboard in the sixth and seventh. Four of the Knights’ five hits came in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“We kind of came out flat, but we hit much better after that,” Shaul said.
After both pitchers — Kelseyville starter Zayne Barker and Colusa’s Bradbury — worked 1-2-3 first innings, the Redhawks scored the only runs they would need to win with a single swing of the bat in the top of the second, an inning that began with Daniel O’Sullivan’s double, which was nothing more than a high flyball that was misplayed in left field and fell untouched near the warning track. O’Sullivan moved over to third base on Justin Lee’s sacrifice bunt and trotted home on Emanuel Frias’ high-flyball home run that went straight down the left-field line, the ball bouncing onto Park Street beyond the fence.
“There was miscommunication on that pitch,” Shaul said of the 3-1 fastball that Frias didn’t miss. “I thought I called a curve, but we threw a fastball and it was up in the zone.”
Colusa added four more runs in the third inning on Lee’s two-run single, a Clay Randolph sacrifice fly, and and a Blake Kalfsbeck RBI double.
The Redhawks tallied a single run in the sixth against reliever Justin Gentle and picked up three more runs in the seventh against reliever Andrew Huggins.
Barker started on the mound for the Knights and took the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits in four innings with three strikeouts and one walk. His defense, especially in the outfield, didn’t do him any favors in the early innings.
Gleaning bright spots from the loss, Shaul said Kelseyville’s adjustments at the plate against Bradbury and the relief work of Justin Gentle were things to build off of.
“I thought Justin was solid in relief,” he said.
Of Kelseyville’s five hits, Huggins, Barker, Jake Keithly, Brandon Garcia and Chase Larsen each had one.
The Redhawks banged out 12 hits, including two apiece for O’Sullivan (both doubles), Frias, Lee and Nick Price.
Kelseyville returns to action Saturday at 6 p.m. against Healdsburg at Recreation Park.
