Sports

To look at the scoreboard of many recent Healdsburg Prune Packers games, one might think that’s softball being played on the field. On June 14, the Stockton Pearls fell 20-1, and the Bay Area Marauders went down 24-5 on June 15. These are scores more frequently found on diamonds where the bases are 60 feet apart, not 90. In softball, at least at the high school level, the “mercy rule” ends a game early if there’s a 10-point spread. No such rule affects collegiate baseball. 

For the seventh time in eight years, young wrestlers traveled to Healdsburg last week to sharpen skills, compare notes and share their enthusiasm for the sport in the Drew Esquivel Memorial Wrestling Camp, held June 12-14 on the Healdsburg High campus.

It took the Healdsburg Prune Packers less than two innings to start sending balls over the Rec Park fence. Center fielder Jonathan Kim of the University of Michigan slammed a high fly over the right field fence with two runners on, and from that point on the power-hitting Prune Packers have made hitting homers part of their game plan.

"This is the most talented roster the Packers have seen since I took over in 2014,” said an enthusiastic coach Joey Gomes this week, as his team prepared to begin their two-month Pacific Empire League Season. “We’ll need to be as well! I have no doubt this league is the most competitive league in the West Coast."

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...