CLOVERDALE — Kelseyville High School’s baseball team isn’t 11-0 by accident. A team of many interchangeable parts that plays its best ball when its most needed, the Knights came through in the clutch again on a hot Thursday afternoon to rally past the Cloverdale Eagles 6-2 at Cloverdale.
The North Central League I game was a tense and pressure-packed affair until Kelseyville, trailing 2-1 after five innings, scored four times in the top of the seventh inning to snap a 2-all tie.
“It’s never going to be easy,” Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul said of the battle put up a Cloverdale team long ago eliminated from the league race but one that had its sights set on handing the Knights (11-0 league, 14-5 overall) their first league loss and injecting a bit more drama into this year’s league race.
And the way Cloverdale’s Emilio Perez was pitching, the Eagles were well on their way.
“Their pitcher did a great job,” Shaul said. “He kept the ball low and used his off-speed stuff to keep us off balance,” Shaul said.
Diaz spotted the Knights a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on Jon Dougherty’s RBI single. Kelseyville nearly had a 2-0 lead but Tyler Bryant was cut down on a close play at the plate trying to score from third base on Brock Barrick’s grounder to shortstop.
Cloverdale tied it up in the bottom half with three straight two-out singles off Barrick, who retired the first two batters he faced before Dom Vellutini, Ayal Fitchelberg and Graden Schweikl had consecutive hits.
The Eagles took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth on back-to-back two-out singles by Casey Lemely and Nick Beeson. Beeson’s basehit into center field scored Fitchelberg, who walked with one out.
Feeling a sense of urgency with just six outs left to work with, the Knights responded.
“Games like this are tough on the coaches, but it’s good for the players to experience pressure like this because we can’t simulate that in practice,” Shaul said.
Zayne Barker walked to open the Kelseyville sixth and advanced on a wild pitch. Joey Gentle tried to sacrifice him over to third but fouled off two bunts before lining out to third base. Andrew Huggins singled into center field to send Barker to third, at which point Shaul went to his bench for Luke Watkins, and the senior delivered with a sacrifice fly into left field to score Barker.
“Scoring that run in the sixth really gave us a boost,” Shaul said. “We really seemed to pick it up. That was a big at-bat by Luke.”
The Eagles came right back to mount a threat of their own in the bottom of sixth, driving Barrick’s pitch count into triple digits. After Barker struck out Kyle Garabaldi, Ryan Moffett, the Eagles’ No. 9 batter, was hit by a pitch. Caden Axell worked the count full before drawing a walk, and both runners advanced on Vellutini’s weak comebacker to the mound. With Fitchelberg, the Cloverdale cleanup hitter, standing at the plate, Barrick needed only three pitches to strike him out looking and end the inning. It was his 10th strikeout of the game and the final batter he would face as his pitch count stood at 105.
The Knights jumped all over a tiring Diaz in the top of the seventh. Reme Strong worked the count full before singling into center field and Bryant sacrificed the potential go-ahead run to second base. He wasn’t there long. Dougherty, first-pitch swinging, doubled deep into center field to score Strong and put Kelseyville ahead 3-2. Barrick followed with a deep flyball into center field. At first it looked like the ball might be caught and Dougherty went only half way. The ball ended up falling for a single as Dougherty moved up to third.
Barker then executed a squeeze bunt that was so good that he reached first base with his third hit of the games as Dougherty raced home and Barrick went all the way around to third base. Joey Gentle was hit by a pitch to load the bases, ending Diaz’s day as Cloverdale went to its bullpen.
It didn’t help. Huggins drew a walk to force in a run and Luke Watkins delivered his second sacrifice fly in as many at-bats to make it 6-2.
“He just did his job,” Shaul said of Watkins, officially 0-for-0 in the game but with two big RBIs.
Barker relieved in the bottom of the seventh. Cloverdale managed to put two runners aboard with one out before the game ended on a 6-4-3 double play. Diaz’s grounder found Jake Burke, who entered the game to replace Barker at shortstop, and he handled the play flawlessly.
The Knights finished with nine hits to Cloverdale’s seven.
“They did a good job of putting the ball in play and finding the holes,” Shaul said of the Eagles (3-8, 7-11). “We just kind of wore them down there at the end. We’re pretty good at grinding. We win in a lot of different ways.”
A deep bench helps, according to Shaul, who made good use of it with the likes of Luke Watkins and Burke.
Kelseyville’s magic number to clinch no worse than a tie for the league title is down to one against both St. Helena (8-2) and Fort Bragg (6-2), and those two teams square off Friday in St. Helena. Kelseyville travels to St. Helena on Tuesday. If St. Helena beats Fort Bragg on Friday and Kelseyville defeats St. Helena on Tuesday, the Knights will clinch the outright crown.
Kelseyville’s final two league games are May 5 at home against Willits and May 9 at Lower Lake.
Game notes: The Knights have gone more than a month since their last loss, a 9-6 setback to Arcata on March 24 in the first game of a non-league doubleheader at Kelseyville. Since then they’ve won 11 in a row … Speaking of Arcata, the Tigers are 16-3 overall and lead the Humboldt-Del Norte Big Five with a 5-2 mark. They’ve won 11 of their last 12 … Barrick struck out the side twice against Cloverdale, the final time in the bottom of the fourth after each of the Eagles’ first two batters reached base … Kelseyville won its first league meeting with Cloverdale 13-5 back on April 4 in Kelseyville … The Knights lost two runners on the basepaths against the Eagles, one at the plate in the top of the third and another in the fourth (picked off at first).
