Mustangs top Eagles in extra innings
M'town wins on passed ball in bottom of eighth; Kelseyville, Upper Lake collect home league wins
MIDDLETOWN >> Cole Ketchum scored on a passed ball with one out in the bottom of the eighth to lift the Middletown Mustangs to a 5-4 extra-inning win over the Cloverdale Eagles in a North Central League I varsity baseball thriller Friday afternoon at Wes Martin Field in Middletown.
With its latest victory, Middletown (7-1 league, 8-9 overall) stays atop the NCL I standings while snapping Cloverdale's five-game league winning streak.
“A little bit of a nail-biter, a little bit of a heart attack,” Middletown
head coach Tyler Holt said of the game's final innings as Cloverdale scored three times in the top of the sixth to erase a 4-1 Middletown lead, then threatened in both the seventh and eighth innings before the Mustangs won it in the bottom of the eighth.
Ketchum (3-for-3, double, 3 RBIs) walked to open the bottom of the eighth, stole second and advanced to third as Aiden de Jong's grounded out to first. Zach Dubois was then hit by a pitch and he also stole second. With Jesse Young at the plate and facing a 3-1 count, a low and outside pitch skipped past the Cloverdale catcher and bounced to the backstop as Ketchum
raced home with the winning run.
Middletown starting pitcher Dax Green carried a 4-1 lead into the top of the sixth when Cloverdale bunched together four of its nine hits, three of them doubles, to pull even. A two-out, bases-loaded walk tied the score at 4-4. Reliever Luke Hoogendoorn came on at that point and needed only one pitch to the third out of the inning.
Cloverdale put two runners on with one in the seventh before Hoogendoorn, the winning pitcher, retired the next batters to get out of the inning. In the top of the eighth, Hoogendoorn hit the Eagles' leadoff batter but struck out each of the next two hitters.
“Which were big,” Holt said of the back-to-back strikeouts.
Then things got a bit tense as Hoogendoorn issued back-toback walks to load the bases. A line drive to left field ended the inning.
“A second heart attack,” Holt said of the top of the eighth.
Green, who missed a chunk of the season with an injury, made his first league start and pitched well until tiring in the top of the sixth. He ended up going 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits with three strikeouts and two walks, one of which was intentional. He was staked to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a Ketchum RBI single. Ketchum's two-run double in the third made it 3-0.
Both teams scored a run in the fifth inning before Cloverdale tied it in the sixth.
Middletown plays twice on the road next week — Tuesday against Clear Lake in Lakeport and Friday at Willits.
In other baseball action Friday:
Kelseyville 7, Clear Lake 3
At Kelseyville, timely hitting by the Knights and a completegame effort by starting pitcher Zayne Barker carried Kelseyville to a NCL I win over Clear Lake.
Kelseyville (6-3, 8-10) bunched together most of its seven hits during a four-run bottom of the second and a three-run fifth to open up a 7-0 lead. Meanwhile Barker was cruising along as he needed just 61 pitches to get through the first five innings.
“He pitched pretty well,” Clear Lake head coach Ed Pepper said. “He had us off-balance.”