Cloverdale cools off red-hot M’town

Crudo goes deep twice in losing cause, Cloverdale smacks two homers of its own

Josh Lemley and Collin Patterson hit two-run homers for Cloverdale, offsetting a pair of solo shots by Middletown’s Tyler Crudo, and the visiting Eagles beat the Mustangs 12-7 in North Central League I varsity baseball action Friday at Wes Martin Field.

Lemley’s blast in the top of the sixth erased a 6-5 Middletown lead and put the Eagles (2-0 league, 4-2 overall) ahead to stay. They scored three more runs in the inning to go up 10-6. Cloverdale then added two insurance runs in the seventh before the Mustangs (1-1 league, 5-3 overall) scored their final run in the bottom half.

“They played really good defense, they could hit the ball, and their pitchers threw strikes,” Middletown head coach Jon Hoogendoorn said of the Eagles. “Cloverdale is definitely good. Every time we would put up a run they would fight back.”

Middletown had won four straight going into play Friday, but the Mustangs struggled on defense withfiveerrors.

“And we weren’t able to string hits together when it mattered,” Hoogendoorn added.

Middletown starting pitcher Dax Green worked the first four innings and left the mound with a 4-2 lead. Reliever Bryan Riehl ended up taking the loss.

Crudo (2-for-4) homered in the first and third innings. Justin Hollingsworth went 3-for-3 with a RBI and scored twice, and Green also had two hits and a RBI.

Middletown hits the road Tuesday to play Clear Lake (2-0 league, 3-5 overall).

In other baseball action Friday:

Upper Lake 26, Potter Valley 4

At

Potter

Valley,

the Upper

Lake Cougars scored nine times in the top of the first while rolling to a five-inning NCL II victory over the Potter Valley Bearcats.

It was the first win of the season for Upper Lake (1-1 league, 1-2 overall).

“We’ve been grinding, so it was good to see the kids go out and compete,” Upper Lake head coach Brian Milhaupt said. “We cut down on our errors (only three).”

Freshman Johnny Gozony Jr. made his first high school start and pitched a complete game, allowing four hits, striking out eight and walking four. He allowed only one earned run. At the plate, he had a single and a double.

“It helps when you’re able to play defense behind him,” Milhaupt said. “It was good to see him go out there and do that. It was a really good outing for him.”

Gozony threw 86 pitches. He was backed by a 13-hit attack led by Bradley Sneathen (3-for-4), Jonathon Thiessen (2-for-5) and Richard Perez (2-for-3).

Defensive standouts were Sneathen at third base and Blaine Rhodes at second base.

“It’s nice when you can make all the routine plays and a couple of outstanding plays as well,” Milhaupt said.

Upper Lake returns to action Tuesday against Credo in Rohnert Park at 4 p.m.