KELSEYVILLE — The Kelseyville Knights made Billy Shaul a winner in his first season as head coach with a resounding 24-2 victory over the Lower Lake Trojans on Friday afternoon in the North Central League I and season finale for both of these varsity baseball teams at Lower Lake.
After starting the season 0-6, including losses in their first two league games, the Knights put it all together to finish 9-8 overall and 9-5 in league, good for a third-place tie with Cloverdale in the final NCL I standings. Fort Bragg won the league at 11-3 followed by Middletown at 10-4.
“I’m happy with it,” Shaul said of his rookie season. “The kids got better and better every week. We gave ourselves a chance (in the league race). We had two tough losses (walk-off defeats at Fort Bragg and St. Helena).”
The Knights’ roster, a mix of seniors who played very little as juniors in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic (the season was canceled after only a handful of games in mid-March of that year) and green freshmen and sophomores, developed a good chemistry as the season progressed, according to Shaul.
Once Kelseyville found its hitting stroke, the wins started to pile up. The Knights were tied for the league lead as late as last week when a 14-2 home loss to Middletown knocked them from the top spot.
Shaul said the future for Kelseyville baseball looks promising based on what the Knights have coming back next season and what they have moving up through the youth ranks.
“We’re pretty excited,” he said.
Kelseyville snapped a mini two-game losing streak in its season finale, banging out 20 hits against last-place Lower Lake (1-13, 1-15). The Knights scored nine times in the top of the second inning to open up a 12-1 lead. They also had an eight-run fifth inning.
Jeremy Brown, a senior, and Joey Gentle, a freshman, both went 4-for-5 with a double and four RBIs to lead the Knights at the plate. Jake Keithly went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs, senior Chase Larsen went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, and senior Jacob Jensen went 3-for-5 with a double and a RBI. Another senior, Brandon Garcia (1-for-4), also had three RBIs.
“Brandon Garcia had a great year, he was kind of our surprise player of the year,” Shaul said. “He was our center fielder and he had a good year at the plate.”
Winning pitcher Justin Gentle, another senior, worked the first four innings, allowing one unearned run on one hit with five strikeouts and two walks. Keithly finished up.
Lower Lake stats were not reported.
In other baseball action Friday:
Fort Bragg 12, Clear Lake 2
At Lakeport, in a game that went the full seven innings, the Fort Bragg Timbrerwolves clinched the undisputed NCL I championship by beating the Clear Lake Cardinals.
Fort Bragg (11-3) needed to win the game to clinch the outright title. A loss would have left the Timberwolves as co-champions along with Middletown (10-4), a 12-2 winner over St. Helena on Friday in Middletown.
“They brought a lot of fans who were cheering them on,” Clear Lake head coach Ed Pepper said of the Timberwolf rooting section. “They came to watch them win the league and that’s what they did.”
Clear Lake trailed only 1-0 through three innings. Fort Bragg broke through with three runs in the top of the fourth for a 4-0 lead before the Cardinals (6-8, 7-13) scored in the bottom half on a fielder’s choice grounder off the bat of Justin Williams. Williams doubled home another run in the bottom of the sixth, but by then the Timberwolves had a 9-1 lead.
Fort Bragg finished with 15 hits to Clear Lake’s one. The Cardinals’ didn’t help themselves in the field either, according to Pepper.
“The way our season has gone we can’t complete a game without a bunch of errors,” Pepper said. “We dropped flyballs and our infield didn’t make plays. They (Timberwolves) were funamentally sound.”
Clear Lake was 5-3 through its first eight league games and among the NCL I title contenders.
“We were sitting in the catbird’s seat until the Kelseyville game (May 4 in Lakeport).”
Clear Lake had a 9-3 lead after five innings but Kelseyville scored five times in the sixth and again in the seventh to force extra innings. A five-run eighth lifted the Knights to a 14-9 victory.
“We had a player ejected in that game and the wheels fell off after that. We couldn’t put it back together.”
Pepper is looking forward to a bigger roster next season.
“Hopefully our numbers will be stronger next year and we can get back on track,” he said.
