Greyhounds Take the Field

As spring cracks wide open throughout the North Bay, baseball season swings into action beneath sunnier skies and drier grass. For Healdsburg, the first few weeks of the schedule have produced mixed results—a couple of tournament wins last week following five straight losses, adding up to a 3-5 record overall.

The season began on a high note as the Greyhounds produced 12 runs against zero for Middleton, at a game played on Feb. 20 in Lake County. All starters reached base on hits at least once as the team amassed nine hits and six walks.

Seven runs scored in the top of the fifth put an early end to the game, as Middleton failed to score in the bottom of the inning.

But the five-game skid began a few days later, and successive losses to Justin-Siena (18-0), St. Helena (7-4), Napa (7-3) and Montgomery (1-0) were followed by a tournament loss in Fort Bragg to Arcata (4-3).

The rest of the tournament, however, found the Greyhounds back on track, as they came from behind to defeat St. Bernard’s 7-5 on March 15 and the next day gained another comeback victory over Point Arena, scoring twice in the seventh inning to win 4-3.

As of March 18, team leaders include Tyler Swanson with a .316 batting average and a .526 slugging percentage; Nova Perrill with six hits, five runs scored and four stolen bases; and leading ERAs from pitchers Anthony Espinoza (0.84) and Alex Mauro-Manos (1.21).

Mark Domenicelli returns as head coach after a 6-6 league record last year.

On Tuesday evening, the Greyhounds took the field at 5pm against league rival St. Vincent de Paul (results too late for press time). There follows an extended series of games at Rec Park against many of these teams, between March 22 and April 2.