Sports

“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.”

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. 

It was almost game time when the fog burned off of the North Coast to reveal the newly remodeled Arcata Ball Park, where Humboldt Crabs baseball fans streamed into the bleachers with high hopes for their team to surprise the league leaders, the Healdsburg Prune Packers. It was not to be.

Hopes are always high at the beginning of a baseball season, and when they are rewarded by a five-game winning streak midway through league play, hopes can soar. That’s the position the Healdsburg High varsity baseball team is in this week, having won 5 in a row and looking for more...

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.

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.

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.

With last year’s running back Frank Rea Jr. taking over the quarterback slot, the Greyhounds have had no trouble adjusting to his leadership. Other returning players including Hayden Mariani, Max Morris and Dillon Jocius, who all made their mark on the scoreboard as well.

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.

It’s getting to be an old story: This is the third straight year a new coach will take control of the team, the sixth time in eight years. That must be counted as a factor for the disappointing record the Greyhounds have run up since their last winning season, 2013. Perhaps, say the faithful again, this year will be different...