Tag: Baseball

Game one of the 2025 Championship series was held on Tuesday, July 29, at Arcata Ball Park, where just two weeks earlier the Packers swept a three-game series.  The Humboldt Crabs made the most of home field advantage to defeat the Healdsburg Prune Packers 10-8 on Tuesday night. The Crabs took an early lead and although the Packers played catch-up all night, tying the game twice, they could not overcome the Crabs....

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 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.

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.

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.”

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...

Those nostalgic sunset games will happen often during the next couple of months for the Greyhounds before the Prune Packers take over Rec Park in June. Until then, baseball fans know they can always find a good game from Healdsburg High’s Greyhounds, both varsity and JV, who play at Rec Park into May.