Cloverdale rallies for two runs in seventh to walk off with 2-1 victory
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CLOVERDALE >> A season’s worth of frustration couldn’t have ended any weirder for the Middletown High School varsity baseball team, which carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, despite being no-hit, only to lose 2-1 to the Cloverdale Eagles on Wednesday afternoon in Cloverdale.
The Eagles (5-9 league, 7-12 overall) closed out their North Central League I varsity baseball schedule with a walk-off victory, spoiling a tremendous complete-game effort Jon Hawkins in the process, and ending Middletown’s season at 3-11 in league play and 5-16-1.
“He pitched his ass off,” Middletown head coach Kyle Buckhorn said of Hawkins, who ended up with a two-hitter in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out 11 and walked two.
Middletown’s offense, a sore point for the team most of the season, failed to collect a hit against either starting pitcher Colin Craig or reliever Vann Randolph, who worked the final two innings for the victory.
“Bats were silent after a great hitting game the day before against a way better team,” Buckhorn said of Middletown’s 13-6 loss on Tuesday to Clear Lake.
The only two hits of the game belonged to Cloverdale’s Damon Guerrero, who went 1-for-3 with a triple and a RBI, and teammate Nolan Axell, who went 1-for-3 with a RBI.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fifth inning when Middletown scored its run without aid of a hit. Tyler Galamay had the RBI.
TEAM NOTES: It’s the second straight season Middletown has finished 3-11 and second-to-last in the league standings. The Mustangs barely improved on last year’s overall record of 4-15. They also were 4-9-1 in league and 4-16-1 in 2023 … Middletown’s last winning league campaign was 12-3 in 2022. The last time they finished above .500 for the season was 8-7 during the COVID-shortened 2021 campaign.