MIDDLETOWN — Two games in two days and two straight North Central League I wins have the Middletown Mustangs feeling a whole lot better about their season.
Middletown withstood a five-run Lower Lake seventh to beat the Trojans 11-9 on Thursday afternoon at Middletown High School. After dropping their first three league games this season, two of them against a pair of the league’s upper-echelon squads in Fort Bragg and St. Helena and their ace pitchers Cassiti Baroni (Fort Bragg) and Aribella Farrell (St. Helena), the Mustangs have rebounded nicely over the last 48 hours with home victories over Lower Lake and Clear Lake (8-6 on Wednesday).
The Mustangs (2-3 league, 3-3 overall) led 8-0 through four innings and 10-3 after five. Both teams scored a run in the sixth before the Trojans made it interesting in the top of the seventh. They managed to get the potential tying run to the plate before the game ended on a foul popup to catcher Carina Fleenor.
Middletown took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third before the Mustangs had their own five-run inning in the fourth to go up 8-0. Coming off a 13-hit day against Clear Lake on Wednesday, the Mustangs banged out eight more against the Trojans (1-3, 2-3), led by Cora Holley (2-for-5, two RBIs) and winning pitcher Shaylyn Sims (2-for-4, double, three RBIs). Melanie Gerst (1-for-4) also had three RBIs while Fleenor (1-for-4) had two.
“They hit the ball pretty well,” Lower Lake first-year coach Tara Downey said of the Mustangs, who shook up their lineup before Wednesday’s win over Clear Lake.
Both teams struggled in the field, combining for more errors (16) than they had hits (13). All eight of the runs allowed by Sims, who worked 6 1/3 innings before being relieved by Brooklyn Wood, were unearned. She scattered four hits, struck out one and walked three. Wood allowed one hit, one run (earned) and walked one in relief.
Likewise most of the runs allowed by losing pitcher Keeley Parks, who went the distance, also were of the unearned variety. She gave up eight hits and four earned runs while striking out six and walking two. Parks threw 115 pitches, 87 of them for strikes.
“I don’t know why, but my girls weren’t feeling it today, they were kind of in a funk,” Downey said. “We started playing a little small ball in the fifth inning and started scoring.”
Lower Lake did all of its scoring over the final three innings — three runs in the fifth, one in the sixth and the five-run seventh.
“We definitely made a comeback,” Downey said.
Errors proved the Trojans’ undoing as they committed 10.
“We made a lot of errors,” Downey said.
Lower Lake’s coach said the play of Klein, her shortstop, and Aliana Barnes, the Trojans’ catcher, were among the bright spots in the loss.
Weather permitting, Lower Lake is home Friday to play defending league champion Fort Bragg at 4 p.m. Middletown is off until Tuesday when it travels to Cloverdale for a 4 p.m. game with the Eagles.
