MIDDLETOWN — Undefeated North Central League I leader Kelseyville watched an 8-3 nearly lead disappear while hanging on to beat the Middletown Mustangs 9-8 in varsity baseball action Tuesday afternoon at Wes Martin Field.
“We find ways to win, but sometimes they’re not pretty,” Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul said in reference to a season-high eight errors committed by his Knights. “We kind of needed that, a close game.”
Kelseyville (8-0 league, 11-5 overall) has won eight straight. Middletown (2-4, 2-9) scored four times in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Knights’ lead to 8-7. After Kelseyville scored in the top of the sixth to go up 9-7, the Mustangs answered with a run in the bottom half to once again make it a one-run game.
Jon Dougherty, working his second inning in relief of starting and winning pitcher Zayne Barker, pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to record the save.
“He went strikeout, strikeout, groundout,” Shaul said of Dougherty’s final inning of work. “Jon did a good job coming in there. That was big.”
“Those guys that came up in the seventh can hit, it just wasn’t their day,” Middletown head coach Tyler Holt said.
Dougherty also powered a 12-hit Kelseyville attack by going 3-for-4 with a triple and three RBIs.
Kelseyville scored four times in the top of the first, including a two-run Barker double followed by Dougherty’s RBI triple.
Tyler Bryant went 2-for-5 with two RBIs for the Knights and Reme Strong went 2-for-5. Alex Cabrera had a ground-rule double and Brock Barrick also doubled.
“We left a lot of guys on base,” Shaul said.
Jon Hawkins went 3-for-4 with a RBI for the Mustangs and both Aiden de Jong and Jacob Urbina had two hits.
Hunter Hartzog was the losing pitcher after going the first 5 1/3 innings for the Mustangs. He also went 1-for-2 with a double and two RBIs.
Kelseyville hits the road Friday to play Clear Lake while Middletown visits Fort Bragg.
In other NCL I action Tuesday:
Lower Lake 6, Clear Lake 3
At Lakeport, Jordan O’Keefe’s infield RBI single tied the score in the top of the sixth and Jordan John followed with a sacrifice fly to put Lower Lake ahead to stay in a come-from-behind victory over the Clear Lake Cardinals.
Clear Lake (2-5, 4-7) built a 3-1 lead after two innings against Lower Lake starting pitcher O’Keefe. He gave way to reliever Edward Gutierrez in the third inning and Gutierrez blanked the Cardinals the rest of the way, shutting them out on two hits while striking out three and walking one.
“He had a nasty curve and was pinning it on the outside corner,” Lower Lake head coach Mark Peterson said. “He was buckling the batters.”
Lower Lake’s defense didn’t commit a single error while the offense collected 10 hits, three of those by Jett Guralas, who scored twice and stole three bases.
“He saw only three pitches in his first three at-bats,” Peterson said of Guralas, who singled his first two times up and lined out in his third trip to the plate.
Lower Lake scored a run in the top of the fourth to cut Clear Lake’s lead to 3-2. The Trojans pushed ahead in the sixth on O’Keefe’s infield single that scored the speedy Guralas all the way from second base. John’s sacrifice fly snapped a 3-all tie.
The Trojans picked up two insurance runs in the seventh.
Lower Lake (2-6, 6-8) snapped a three-game losing streak. All six of the Trojans’ victories this season have come on the road.
“We haven’t won a home game yet,” said Peterson, who is hoping to end that streak when the Trojans host Cloverdale on Friday.
Clear Lake statistics were not available.
Upper Lake 10, Point Arena 2 (1st game)
Point Arena 2, Upper Lake 1 (2nd game)
At Upper Lake, playing only their second and third games of the season, the Upper Lake Cougars split a NCL II doubleheader with the Point Arena Pirates.
Johnny Gozony pitched four innings for the victory in game one, striking out six and walking none. Ray Rahmer worked the final three innings.
Tyler Collins, Will Henry and Gabe Burris had one hit and one RBI apiece for Upper Lake (1-2). Jace Kelly drove in two runs while Luke Summerfield, Mikel Compton and Nick Foster also collected RBIs.
In game two, Upper Lake took a 1-0 lead in the first inning before Point Arena rallied to tie it with a run in the second. The Pirates pushed ahead to stay with a run in the fifth.
Collins, working in relief of starter Kyler Brothers, took the loos.
Brothers went 1-for-3 with a RBI. Henry and Dylan Slater also had hits for the Cougars.
Upper Lake returns to action next Tuesday with a league home doubleheader against Potter Valley. Action begins at 2 p.m.
