For the first time in Mark Domenichelli’s 16 years as a baseball coach at Healdsburg High, his team has reached the semifinals in the division championship series. That means they’re just one win away from the finals, two from the title.
They are performing even better than they did in 2022, when they finished the year with a 17-11 record overall but Domenichelli received a Coach of the Year in Baseball for the California North Coast Section.
If earlier this season the team experienced a couple of rough patches, in the last month they have been one of the hottest teams in the state, winning eight of their last nine games. Last week they knocked off the division’s #1 team, the Arroyo Dons in San Lorenzo, winning by a 6-0 final score.
Starting pitcher Alex Mauro-Manos was, in the coach’s word, “spectacular.” The junior needed only 74 pitches over the seven-inning game, which Domenichelli called “the best game we played all year.”
“We played without four players because of the (FFA) fair, and two were starters,” he said, referring to Frank Rea and Vinny Loupy. No matter: the Greyhound dugout is deep.
Alex Cyphers came up huge, going two-for-three with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored. Nova Perrill II went two-for-four with an RBI, and John Wallace got an RBI on a sacrifice fly, walked, singled and scored a run. “Total team effort,” the coach repeated.
Dominant pitching
But it was pitching once again that kept the Greyhound winning streak going. Early in the season sophomore Noah Wong delivered a series of strong outings. Then senior lefty Eric Nielsen came on like Koufax, running up a 10-0 stat for a new school record. He’s also charted three saves and 82 strikeouts, making him one of the state’s top 10 pitchers.
His performance in the first round drew superlatives from the coach. “Eric saved his best for last. He was sensational and I’m so proud of him. He worked hard for four years to put himself in this situation, and all the hard work paid off,” Domenichelli said. “He had everything working against St. Patrick’s. The fastball was electric, and his combination of change-up and curveball had them off-balance all day.”
The May 21 game, played in Vallejo against #9 seed St. Patrick-St. Vincent, ended in a 5-2 win for the Greyhounds. “It was special,” said the coach of Nielsen’s eight strikeouts over five innings.
Then junior Mauro-Manos (5-3)—last year’s co-MVP Pitcher of the Year—returned to form after an early season injury prevented extensive outings. Before he handcuffed the Dons with his complete game performance, he won against both Piner and Santa Rosa to close out the North Bay League-Redwood schedule.
A couple of weeks ago, Domenichelli was bursting with what seemed like unwarranted optimism, pointing to the team’s 17-6 record as “one of the best seasons of all time,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the guys. They like playing together, and they make it fun to go to practice.”
Now the team is 19-7, climbing up the division ladder in the hunt for their 20th win and a division championship.
Semifinal game
“On to Las Lomas on Wednesday,” Domenichelli said after the Arroyo upset. The Knights have a 14-11-1 record and are seeded 13th in the 16-team series. Healdsburg is seeded # 8, but beating #1 Arroyo should give them an edge.
On the other hand, it was Las Lomas that upset #5 Moreau Catholic last week, 7-1, on a convincing one-hitter from Noah Sison. It’s not known if Mauro-Manos or Nielsen will start for the Greyhounds on Wednesday night (results too late for press time).
More to the point for local fans: Since Healdsburg is the higher seed, by tradition the game should be played in Healdsburg. But the Rec Park field is closed, given a rest between the FFA Fair and the opening of the Prune Packers season on June 6.
So the game instead will be played in Walnut Creek, home of the Knights. “I feel awful for the boys, not because of the field being closed—but I wish the school and community could appreciate all the hard work they put in this year,” Domenichelli said.
The Healdsburg Tribune will publish results on Facebook on Thursday, and in the paper next week.
