KELSEYVILLE — After throwing his 110th and final pitch to strike out Middletown’s Jesse Young in the top of the seventh inning, Zayne Barker walked off the mound Friday afternoon against the Mustangs one out shy of a complete-game victory.
He had to wait a couple of batters to see that final out recorded, but Barker and the Knights got the job done, beating Middletown 8-6 and handing the Mustangs their first loss in a crowded North Central League I varsity baseball race that could go right down to the wire just as it did a year ago when Fort Bragg edged out Middletown, St. Helena and Kelseyville for the title.
And it appears those same four teams, and possibly a fifth in Cloverdale, could make the 2022 race another thriller. Right now it’s pretty much anyone’s league to win. St. Helena (4-0) is the lone remaining undefeated team after Middletown (4-1) and Fort Bragg (3-1) both lost on Friday — Cloverdale (2-3) beat Fort Bragg 6-5. Kelseyville is also 4-1.
“If you look at the league, everyone seems to be the same,” Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul said. “There are a lot of young teams.”
One of those young teams is certainly Kelseyville, and the Knights’ ups and downs this season are largely the result of their relative inexperience. Case in point was an 11-0 league loss in six innings Wednesday at home against Fort Bragg, a setback that had Shaul scratching his head because of his team’s listless performance. Forty-eight hours later the Knights looked like a completely different team against Middletown as they banged out 13 hits, committed only one error and rode the arm of Barker, one of their few veterans, as far as it would take them, which happened to be 6 2/3 innings before Colin Jensen came on to register the save.
Kelseyville’s underclassmen, including freshmen Reme Strong, Tyler Bryant, Max Hommer and Kyle Watkins, all made significant contributions to back Barker’s ironman effort.
“He just battled for us all day,” Shaul said of the junior Barker, who isn’t a hard thrower, relying on his off-speed stuff and pitch location to keep opposing batters off balance. “I was going to go with Colin to start the seventh, but I stuck with Zayne until he hit the pitch limit.”
Barker wasn’t exactly a mystery to Middletown’s hitters — they had 11 hits against him, including two home runs — but he registered some big outs in key situations and also got some help from his defense, including a double play turned by Watkins to end the Middletown third (he fielded a grounder, stepped on second base for the force and threw on to first).
“He handled every single play,” Shaul said of Watkins.
And Barker was able to brush off both Middletown home runs — a towering solo shot by Zach Dubois to left field in the top of the second inning that gave the Mustangs their one and only led of the day at 1-0 — and a laser-shot three-run blast to left field off the bat of Cole Ketchum in the top of the fifth that cut a 7-2 Kelseyville lead to 7-5 in the blink of an eye.
“He does a good job of letting it go past him,” Shaul said of Barker’s ability to bounce back quickly from adversity such as the Middletown home runs, which could have shaken a lesser pitcher.
How did Barker respond? After Dubois’ home run, he struck out the next three batters. Following Ketchum’s shot, he did issue a six-pitch walk to Jesse Young before retiring the next two Middletown hitters on strikeouts.
Facing Middletown’s top pitcher in senior Luke Hoogendoorn, Kelseyville’s bats were alive all day, led by the freshmen trio of Strong-Hommer-Bryant.
Strong went 2-for-3 with a two-run double that put Kelseyville ahead to stay at 2-1 in the bottom of the second.
“He was in the lineup because our starting left fielder went camping (Kelseyville and Middletown are on spring break this week),” Shaul said.
Likewise Hommer, who plays up with the varsity only when the school’s junior varsity schedule permits, went 2-for-4, singling and scoring in the bottom of the third to give the Knights a 3-1 lead, and connecting for a two-out RBI single in the fifth to provide the Knights with a big insurance run and a 8-5 lead.
Bryant went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, his two-run single down the left-field line the big blow during Kelseyville’s four-run fourth inning that also featured a RBI Watkins single and a Jensen bases-loaded walk.
Kelseyville’s approach at the plate also pleased Shaul because the Knights made Hoogendoorn work hard during his 3 1/3 innings by taking a lot of pitches and fouling off even more.
“That’s why I moved Jake Keithly, who normally bats fourth for us, to the top of the order today,” Shaul said. “He battles up there and he kind of set the tone for us (with an eight-pitch at-bat to open the bottom of the first).”
Middletown’s bats and defense certainly did their part to keep the game interesting right up to the final batter. The Mustangs finished with 12 hits and committed only two errors.
“I thought they played a great game,” Shaul said of the Mustangs. “We had a couple more timely hits and that was pretty much the difference.”
Middletown first-year head coach Tyler Holt credited Kelseyville with a solid all-around performance.
“They just flat out had a better approach,” he said. “We got into counts were we had to throw to them and they took advantage.”
While the Mustangs have all the physical tools necessary to win a league title, Holt said his team is still coming up short in one critical category, and they’ll need to do a much better job next week when they close out the first half of league play with games against Fort Bragg (Tuesday in Fort Bragg) and St. Helena (Friday at home).
“I don’t think we were mentally prepared today,” he said. “We focus on things that don’t really matter. We set ourselves up for stressful situations and it comes back to bite us.”
Having Dax Green back on the field has been a big boost for the Mustangs. Sidelined with a hamstring injury most of last month, he went 4-for-4 on Tuesday against Willits and 3-for-4 Friday against Kelseyville with a double. He also initiated a 9-2 double play in the bottom of the second. Kelseyville had already gone in front 2-1 on Strong’s two-run double to right-center field and the Knights were threatening for more with runners at second and third and no outs. Andrew Huggins lofted a flyball into right field that Green caught. His throw home nailed Jensen, who tagged up on the play. Hoogendoorn then retired Keithly on a groundout to limit the damage to just the two runs.
Jake Burke, a junior, was another hero for Kelseyville in Friday’s win, going 3-for-4 with a RBI single the bottom of the third that made it 3-1 in the Knights’ favor. Middletown closed to 3-2 in the top of the fourth on Micah Dymer’s RBI groundout before the Knights pushed ahead 7-2 in the bottom of the fourth. Ketchum’s shot onto Park Street in the top of the fifth made it 7-5, and Hommer’s RBI single in the bottom half gave the Knight an 8-5 lead. The Mustangs picked up their final run in the seventh as Green singled into center field and advanced to second on a Ketchum groundout. Barker struck out Young for the second out before leaving the game. Dubois (3-for-4) greeted his replacement, Jensen, with a RBI single before Jensen got Dymer to fly out to left field to end the game.
“After losing to Fort Bragg on Wednesday, I wouldn’t say this was a must-win, but it was a win we needed to boost our confidence,” Shaul said.
