LAKE COUNTY — Undefeated North Central League I champion Kelseyville High School is the top-seeded Lake County baseball team advancing to the North Coast Section playoffs. The No. 4-seeded Knights open play in the 16-team Division 4 tournament Wednesday while Clear Lake and Upper Lake earned at-large berths in the Division 5 playoffs, which begin Tuesday.
Kelseyville, 14-0 in league play and 17-5 overall, will host No. 13 seed St. Patrick-St. Vincent (10-13-1) of Vallejo in a first-round game Wednesday at Lloyd Larson Field. First pitch is 5 p.m.
Clear Lake (8-10) and Upper Lake (6-3) are both on the road Tuesday for first-round games in the 16-team Division 5 playoffs. Clear Lake, fourth in the NCL I standings this season and the No. 11 seed, won’t have to travel far as the Cardinals open against No. 6 Technology (13-6) in Rohnert Park at 5 p.m. Upper Lake, the NCL III co-champion and No. 14 seed, plays No. 3 The Bay School (17-3) at West Sunset Diamond in San Francisco at 5 p.m.
Division 4
Kelseyville enters the postseason a winner of 14 straight. It has no common opponents with its first-round opponent, St. Patrick-St. Vincent. The winner advances to the quarterfinals May 20 against the victor of another Wednesday first-round game between No. 5 seed Justin-Siena (12-9) of Napa and No. 12 Berean Christian (8-16) of Walnut Creek. If the Knights prevail, they’ll host that game.
The only teams seeded above Kelseyville in the Division 4 field are No. 1 Fortuna (11-7-1), No. 2 St. Joseph-Notre Dame (19-4-1) of Alameda, and No. 3 Arcata (20-6). Kelseyville split non-league doubleheaders with both Fortuna and Arcata early in the 2023 season.
McKinleyville (14-11) is the No. 6 seed, Del Norte (12-11-1) is No. 7 and Piedmont (12-10) is No. 8.
Besides Kelseyville-St. Patrick-Vincent and Justin-Siena-Berean Christian, other Wednesday first-round games have No. 16 seed St. Helena (11-11), third in the NCL I standings, at Fortuna, Branson at Piedmont, Fremont Christian at St. Joseph Notre Dame, No. 10 Fort Bragg (13-6-1), the NCL I runner-up, at Del Norte, Salesian at Arcata, and Healdsburg at McKinleyville.
Besides splitting doubleheaders with Fortuna and Arcata, Kelseyville swept Fort Bragg in league play and lost 2-1 to Healdsburg in non-league action among other Division 4 playoff teams.
The Division 4 semifinals are May 24 at the home sites of the highest surviving seeds. The championship game is May 26-27 at the home of the highest remaining seed.
The Northern California playoffs follow May 30, June 1 and June 3.
Division 5
Clear Lake faces a Technology team that finished second in the NCL II standings this season. If the Cardinals can defeat the Titans, they’ll draw the winner of the Upper Lake-The Bay School game in the quarterfinals on Friday. The Bay School is the undefeated Bay Counties Central League champion
Clear Lake won its final two NCL I games to nail down fourth place behind league champion Kelseyville, runner-up Fort Bragg and third-place finisher St. Helena, all Division 4 teams.
Upper Lake beat Technology 10-7 in a non-league game last week. The Cougars have the fewest number of games played (nine) among the Division 5 teams. Upper Lake tied Point Arena for the NCL III championship this season before Point Arena beat Upper Lake 4-1 in a tiebreaker game last Thursday to determine which team would get the league’s automatic berth into the sectional playoffs.
Head-Royce (13-7) of Oakland is the No. 1 seed and University High School (18-7) of San Francisco is No. 2. After The Bay School, the other top seeds are No. 4 St. Vincent (11-13) of Petaluma, No. 5 Credo (12-4) of Rohnert Park, Technology, No. 7 Sonoma Academy (9-3) of Santa Rosa, and No. 8 Athenian (6-14) of Danville.
Other first-round games Tuesday besides Clear Lake-Technology and Upper Lake-The Bay School have Gateway at Head-Royce, Stuart Hall at Athenian, Bentley at St. Vincent, International at Credo, South Fork at University and No. 10 Cloverdale (8-10) at Sonoma Academy.
The highest surviving seeds host Friday’s quarterfinal-round games. The semifinals are May 23 and the championship game is May 26-27.
The Northern California playoffs follow May 30, June 1 and June 3.
