NBL Playoffs Come to Healdsburg
Healdsburg ball fans should know that baseball and softball North Bay League championship games, for both the Oak and Redwood divisions, will be played here in town on Friday, May 10. Baseball will be hosted at Rec Park at 3:30pm (Redwood) and 6:30 (Oak). Softball games are played at the HHS varsity field (University and Monte Vista), at 4:30 (Oak) and 7pm (Redwood division).
Why? Because Healdsburg’s fields have lights.
Greyhound News
The spring prep season in area high schools is finishing up this month. Most regularly scheduled games and meets are in the past; a few league playoffs and division tournaments remain, however.
Regular season ended on a down note for both the varsity baseball and girls’ softball teams. Both played their final game against Piner, also a North Bay League (NBL) Redwood division team, and they both came up short.
The Lady Greyhounds softball team’s final game was Monday, here at the Healdsburg school. Healdsburg last faced Piner on April 16, at the Santa Rosa school, and found themselves outhit and outpitched in a 13-3 loss.
They recovered with two strong wins against Elsie Allen, 15-2, and Justin-Siena, 14-1. But as the season came to a close, they lost three straight, finishing up with the disappointing 11-0 showing against Piner on Monday. Laurel Heany went the distance, getting seven strikeouts but walking 10, finishing the season with an 8-6 win/loss record.
Sophomore Claire Berry ended the season with a team-leading batting average of .357, an on-base percentage of .455, 24 RBIs and three home runs. Her fellow sophomore, Izzy Osborn, followed her in many of these categories, batting .320, with an on-base percentage of .452.
Other leading offensive performers included another sophomore, Ashley Jenkins, freshman Hannah Levine-Smith and junior Hannah Sellards.
The Greyhound girls ended the season with a 4-6 league record, 9-11 overall. They finished in fourth place in the six-team NBL Redwood. But it’s good enough for the team to make the league playoffs, on Wednesday and Friday of this week at the HHS field.
“There is so much more to our team, our sport and our players than the final score,” said coach Brian Osborn.
Baseball Dreams
The varsity baseball team also enjoyed highs and lows this year, finishing on the downhill side of .500 ball with an 11-14 record overall, 4-8 in the league. Although they hoped to end the year on a strong note against fifth-place Piner, the Prospectors had other ideas in mind, and the pitching to back them up.
Wednesday, May 1st’s game was played in Santa Rosa, and Piner’s pitching squad shut them out for the 3-0 win. It was a frustrating game for the Greyhounds, as they left 15 runners on base, Hayden Mariani and John Wallace three times each.
Two days later, Friday, May 3, a disappointed hometown crowd saw Piner pitcher Anthony Cordoza and Garrett Drefs combine for a one-hit shutout, with only John Wallace getting on base with a double. The Piner pitchers walked eight, however, but again the Greyhounds could not bring the runners around.
Like their softball counterparts, the Greyhounds finished fourth in the Redwood division, but a four-game league playoff that began yesterday afternoon (Wednesday, May 8) saw them playing first-place Montgomery.
Healdsburg handed Montgomery their first loss back on April 5, 7-0, as Alex Mauro-Manos threw a three-hit shutout. Montgomery subsequently lost two more league games, both to St. Vincent in the past week, the tail end of a four-game losing streak.
The winner of Wednesday afternoon’s game will play the winner of the St. Vincent-Santa Rosa game, which will also be held on Wednesday. Then the championship game will be played on Friday, May 10, in Healdsburg at 4pm.
So it’s possible, just possible, that the Greyhound boys can score a come-from-behind league championship pennant, if they put two games together and get those runners across the plate. And there’ll be a home-town crowd to cheer them on.
