{"id":6191,"date":"2026-04-05T00:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6191"},"modified":"2026-04-05T00:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T00:11:20","slug":"mustangs-cards-knights-notch-league-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6191","title":{"rendered":"Mustangs, Cards, Knights notch league wins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Xavier’s inside-the-park home run snaps 4-4 tie, lifts M’town to 6-4 victory over Upper Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake County Sports on Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MIDDLETOWN >> Hayden Xavier\u2019s two-run inside-the-park home run with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning snapped a 4-4 tie and lifted the Middletown Mustangs to a 6-4 victory over the Upper Lake Cougars in North Central League I varsity baseball action Friday afternoon in Middletown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown (3-1 league, 7-4 overall) beat Upper Lake 21-2 in five innings just three days earlier in Upper Lake, but this time the Cougars (0-4, 2-8) came ready to play, according to head coach on Meri, who watched his team tie the score at 4-4 with two runs in the top of the sixth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the bottom half, losing pitcher Carlos Narvaes retired the first two batters he faced before giving up a single to Hunter Karp. Xavier then connected to center field, hustling around the bases and sliding home just ahead of the tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cody Perez, the third Middletown pitcher of the day, entered the game in the sixth inning and worked a scoreless seventh to secure the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown now has as many league victories this season as it did all of last season (3-11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe three, four and five batters, Hunter Karp, Hayden Xavier and Johnny Finney contributed in a big way, especially in the bottom of the sixth,\u201d Middletown head coach Marc Humphrey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xavier\u2019s home run was the second of the game for the Mustangs, who scored their first run of the day on Jon Hawkins\u2019 leadoff shot in the bottom of the first, a deep blast onto the roof of the building behind the left-field fence. It was his second homer of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Rahmer went 2-for-4 and drove in a run for the Cougars, who avoided being 10-runned for the first time in league play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkins, Xavier and Karp had two hits apiece for the Mustangs. Karp and Tyler Galamay also had doubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both teams return to action at home Tuesday at 4 p.m. Middletown hosts Fort Bragg while Upper Lake hosts Kelseyville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other NCL I baseball action Friday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake 14, Cloverdale 3 (5 inn.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Cloverdale, the Clear Lake Cardinals were in control from the start as they swept the season series from the Cloverdale Eagles with a five-inning victory at City Park. As a result, both teams find themselves at opposite ends o the NCL I standings, Clear Lake tied with St. Helena for first place at 4-0, and Cloverdale tied with Upper Lake and Lower Lake for last place at 0-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe came out and hit the ball,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said of Clear Lake\u2019s 13 hit attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better yet, the Cardinals, now 8-5-1 overall, hit the ball up and down their lineup as nine different players collected hits, including reserves Mikah Meo and Grayson Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even the subs were swinging the ball well,” Horne said. “We came out and hit the ball today, and we had some good team at-bats (RBI groundout, sacrifice fly, bases-loaded walk).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike a 10-6 win over Cloverdale on Tuesday in Lakeport, this one was never in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe let them know who the better team is,\u201d Horne said. \u201cI was happier with the energy today, and we cut down on our strikeouts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cardinals provided all the run support winning pitcher AJ Bruch would need in the first two innings, scoring twice in the top of the first and three times in the second to go up 5-0. Cloverdale picked up an unearned run in the bottom of the second on a Clear Lake fielding error but didn\u2019t score again until the bottom of the fifth, by which time the Cardinals were up 14-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake scored twice in the top of the third and seven times in the fifth, an inning that seemed like it may never end. Fabian Moreno had a RBI single as did Jesse Hayes, Johnny Gonzales III knocked in two more runs with a double, pinch-hitter Meo singled home a run, and reserve Russel Davis drew a four-pitch, bases-loaded walk to bring home another run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning, but it wasn\u2019t enough to prevent the game from being stopped on account of the 10-run mercy rule. The Eagles might have been able to prolong the game if not for a great play by Gonzales at shortstop as he ranged deep into the hole to throw out the runner for the second out of the inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayes, Clear Lake\u2019s leadoff hitter, finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBIs while Sawyer Smith (2-for-2, double) also drove in two runs. David Cruz went 2-for-3 with a RBI, Gonzales (1-for-4) doubled and knocked in three runs overall, Zane McAuley (1-for-3) doubled and Ryken Villanuever went 1-for-3 with a RBI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruch allowed five hits on three runs (two earned) in 4 2\/3 innings, striking out 10 and walking three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake and St. Helena, the only two undefeated teams in league play, square off twice early next week. Clear Lake hosts St. Helena on Monday and then visits St. Helena on Tuesday. Both games begin at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville 12, Lower Lake 2 (5 inn.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Lower Lake, trailing 3-0 going to the bottom of the fourth inning, Lower Lake loaded the bases with no outs against Kelseyville starting pitcher Carson Stone, who then shut the Trojans down, getting the next three batters on a force play at the plate following a comebacker to the mound, a popup to second base, and a strikeout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights (3-1, 4-9) then broke the game wide open with a nine-run top of the fifth, sending 13 batters to the plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stone worked all five innings for the win, allowing two hits while striking out six and walking one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe pitched really well,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights also continued their recent trend of hitting the ball well. Eight different players collected hits. JD Smart went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs, Brayton Thomas went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs, and Stone helped his one cause with two hits, one of them a double, and two RBIs. Case Pivniska (1-for-2), Ryan Keithly (1-for-3), Max Lee (1-for-3) and Michael Dougherty (1-for-2) also knocked in runs. Dougherty had two RBIs. Deake Lyndall added another hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville took a 1-0 lead in the second inning and made it 3-0 in the third inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were definitely in a game until that last inning,\u201d Shaul said. \u201cWe took good approaches at the plate today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake statistics were not reported. The Trojans are 0-4 in league and 3-8-1 overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville visits Upper Lake on Tuesday while Lower Lake travels to Cloverdale. Both games start at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Xavier’s inside-the-park home run snaps 4-4 tie, lifts M’town to 6-4 victory over Upper Lake Lake County Sports on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> Hayden Xavier\u2019s two-run inside-the-park home run with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning snapped a 4-4 tie and lifted the Middletown Mustangs to a 6-4 victory over the Upper Lake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,16,84,17,18,19,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6193,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6191\/revisions\/6193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}