By Caleb Knudsen
Healdsburg High School students had the week off for spring break, and while that slowed down the sports calendar for the time being, things should pick up next week, as games stack up two, three, even four times a week into May.
The boys baseball team is still looking for a win in the North Bay Redwood league. Two of their three wins in their 3-7 season record came a couple of weeks ago in Fort Bragg tournament play. Since then, they’ve played two games—one of them a league matchup—and lost both.
The league game, their second, was a warm spring afternoon at Rec Park on March 19. Alex Mauro-Manos was the starting pitcher but struggled through four innings, walking five and giving up seven hits and as many runs. Andrew Greene pitched a lean fifth, then freshman Anthony Espinoza took the mount with mixed results but good exposure.
Xander Harms led off the second inning with a home run down the left field line, his second, to give the Greyhounds the lead. But the Mustangs scored big in the fourth and sixth innings, and ended up on the high end of an 11-7 score.
Two days later, on March 21, Healdsburg hosted American Canyon at Rec Park in a tightly scored non-league game. The Greyhounds claimed the most runs in an inning in the bottom of the third, scoring 3 to even up the game. But the Wolves chipped away through the top of the seventh when they took a 7-5 lead.
The home team could only bring home a single run in the bottom of the inning and lost a heartbreaker, 7-6.
Isaiah Roberts got a pair of hits and an RBI, Wyatt Dugan scored twice, and Hayden Mariani got a double and a walk on offense. Four Healdsburg errors helped American Canyon keep runners on base, and at the end of the game that was the difference.
Tuesday evening at Rec Park, the Greyhounds got their first league win with a 2-1 squeaker over Santa Rosa. Mauro-Manos went the distance for the win. Thursday at 6pm, March 28, they meet Piner at Rec Park, followed by an April 2 game against Montgomery, again at home.
Girls Softball
The Healdsburg girls softball team is glad Credo is on the schedule this year. They’ve played them twice for two of their wins in their 3-3 overall record.
The Lady Greyhounds followed up their 7-6 win over Credo on March 11 with a 10-6 victory over Piner the next day. It was a non-league game but as Piner currently sits atop the girls North Bay Redwood league, it was a feel-good win. Especially since the Lady Greys had built up a 7-run lead entering the seventh, and even Piner’s three-run barrage failed to make much of a difference.
Laurel Heaney went the distance for her third win, striking out eight and walking only two. Heaney and Izzy Osborn hit two-baggers and each got an RBI, while Mia Falberg and Celia Vellatton got a pair of hits each.
After losing 6-0 on the road against Terra Linda the next day, which we won’t talk about, Healdsburg played a rematch against Credo on March 20, scoring 6 runs in the bottom of the first and never looking back. Credo, a Waldorf charter school in Rohnert Park, could only bring across a single run in the top of the first, as Heaney handcuffed the Gryphon with seven strikeouts in just five innings of play, allowing only a single hit, as the game ended early with 11-1 on the board.
Tuesday night this week, March 26, the girls traveled to Tomales for a non-league game, and made a statement with a 13-2 victory. They hosted Calistoga the following evening, results too late for press time.
The league schedule starts in earnest on April 2, with a 5pm game against Elsie Allen on the home field.
