Sports

For the second year in a row, a Greyhound won the Most Valuable Pitcher award as Eric Nielsen followed 2024's co-winner Mauro-Manos into the exclusive circle. Nielsen’s finishing record of 10 wins and 83 strikeouts led in the league and placed him among the top 10 high school pitchers statewide.

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.

With this season’s NBL play now passed, both the boys baseball and girls softball teams look forward to the North Coast Section tournament of the top 16 teams in each division. The girls play in Division 5, the boys in Division 4.

"Our last event as a team will be a team dinner May 22 at the local Healdsburg Bollywood restaurant," said Stan Bischof. "Since we have many seniors, next year will be a recruiting year. I will host open badminton sessions at Healdsburg High for current and incoming students who are perhaps interested in badminton."

It’s been an up and down season for the Healdsburg softball team, but the regular season ended on a much higher note a week earlier, their last home game on May 6. The Greyhounds scored 9 runs in the second inning and 7 more in the next two, ending the game after four-and-a-half innings far ahead, 17-2.

Nine Healdsburg High athletes qualified to participate in the May 17 North Coast Section, Redwood Empire area meeting in Fortuna, including...

The Healdsburg varsity has won nine of their last 11 games and is on a four-game winning streak. This week, they end the Redwood schedule with a pair of games against Piner, whose 4-9 record places them fifth in the six-team league.

Swimmers from Healdsburg and Windsor high schools, neighboring campuses with a long shared history and intertwined roots, have been nipping at each other’s heels all season. For one, they share the same pool at Healdsburg High—so they stagger their daily practices, schedule their meets around each other and rub shoulders in the locker room...

The season ends with two games against Piner, on May 7 (in Healdsburg) and May 9 (at Piner). League and division playoff schedules are yet to be announced, but the Greyhounds have had good luck in post season play in recent years, under coach Mark Domenichelli.

“Greatest loss of my career,” Coach Mike Domenichelli said. “The players gave it everything they had. The crowd was electric and it was like playing at Yankee Stadium. It was just unfortunate that someone had to lose.”