Sports

To no one’s surprise, the Healdsburg Prune Packers begin the last full week of PEL (Pacific Empire League) play on Wednesday with an unassailable 5.5 game lead over two second-place teams, their 20 wins against only three losses demonstrating their dominance. With only three or four games left for each team, a different pennant winner is impossible.

The varsity baseball Eagles stretched their league unbeaten streak to three games last week, claiming Willits and Kelseyville as their latest victims.

The irregular thwack-thwop-pop of tennis rises up from the high school courts every afternoon of the week, and often on weekends, as the student-athletes of Healdsburg High School hone their serves, returns, backspins and lobs. It seems worth the while: The school’s boys tennis team is definitely competitive this year.

“Scholarship Night is truly a testament to the generosity of the community of Healdsburg and how much our town cares about our young people,” said Shelley Anderson, the school’s scholarship coordinator. “Because of our robust and bountiful scholarship program and donors, many of our HHS graduates are able to get their four-year degrees with minimal or no debt.”

Things looked mighty hopeful there for a few minutes at the end of the April 12 softball game against Windsor. The Jaguars came to visit on a weekend to make up for a rained-out game, bringing a strong 9-4 record to Healdsburg and a 4-1 league record that puts them on top of the North Bay – Oak division, a bigger, tougher division than the Redwood the Greyhounds compete in...

"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."

The week just passed encapsulated the great baseball program built by coach Joey Gomes with the Healdsburg Prune Packers. Tons of powerful offense paired with fantastic pitching and defensive web gems, on a team built with rising stars from across the country. It is frankly surprising to see the determination and great chemistry within a team like the Packers after only a month of playing together.

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.

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.