Healdsburg’s narrow path to an NBL Redwood baseball pennant opened a bit wider Wednesday afternoon. In dramatic fashion, the Greyhounds broke a 7-inning scoreless game on a two-out error by the Montgomery shortstop that allowed Tyler Swanson to score from second in the top of the eight inning.
Alex Mauro-Manos, who had kept the frustrated Vikings without a run all day, set them down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning to seal the victory. It was not a perfect outing for the sophomore, who allowed five hits and walked five (three of which were intentional), but it was good enough for the 1-0 win that will put the Greyhounds into the league championship game on Friday.
That game will be played at Rec Park against the Santa Rosa Panthers who beat St. Vincent de Paul 11-7 in the other playoff game Wednesday afternoon.
The results marked something of an upset in the North Bay League’s Redwood division, whose first-place team, Montgomery, lost to the fourth place Greyhounds, while the second-place Vikings fell to the third-place Panthers.
Friday’s game time for the Redwood division pennant will be 3:30pm. It will be followed by the championship game for the NBL Oak division between first-place Cardinal Newman and second-place Ukiah, also at Rec Park. That game should begin about 6:30pm.
