Healdsburg falls to Santa Rosa, 13-2 at Rec Park

Healdsburg Owls dug a hole with errors in the fifth inning of Saturday night's  game against the Santa Rosa Gnats and never climbed out, losing 13-2.

"We've got to start catching the ball and stop the errors," said Owls Manager David Hunter in a post-game interview at Art McCaffrey Field in Healdsburg's

"Every game, we have one inning where errors take over," Hunter said. "This game, we gave up seven runs in the fifth."

About 75 people attended Saturday night's contest, part of the schedule of the new  semi-pro summer league sponsored by Howard Leonhardt of Leonhardt Vineyards in Healdsburg.

"I love it," said Bob Beach of Healdsburg, who was at his first Wine County Baseball game at Rec Park with wife Laura Beach. "Talking, visiting, watching the game -- and they're pretty good."

Beach, a member of the , said he recalled when Rec Park first opened for baseball and one of his four sons was playing there in Little League.

"He's 34 now," Beach said. He said the old-fashioned friendliness of Rec Park was enjoyable.

"What we want mostly is good baseball," he said.

A minor controversy surfaced Saturday about the name for the Santa Rosa team. One faction apparently wants to change the name from the original Gnats to Santa Rosa Giants. It was not immediately clear Saturday which name is prevailing -- and both names are listed on the Wine Country Baseball website.

At one point, Wine Country Baseball General Manager Riley Sullivan, who was game announcer on Saturday, tried to appease both factions.

"OK," Sullivan said, "we have the Santa Rosa Gnats-Giants -- that should make everyone happy."

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Healdsburg started strong with a 2-0 lead on runs by second baseman Will Brasher and shortstop Justin Herguth in the second and fourth innings.

But  an overthrown ball to second base in the fifth inning that allowed Santa Rosa to score was part of the action that led to "the beginning of the end,"  said Owls Pitcher Max Rubenstein.

"Mental errors," said Rubenstein in summarizing what took place.

Santa Rosa started scoring in the fifth inning off a long hit by Jerome Godsey with bases loaded.

It looked like a home run, but the ball apparently bounced first before going out of the park, so it was deemed a ground-rule double, limiting the score on that hit to two runs.

However, a hit after that by Gnats second baseman Nick Green brought in two more runs, and a pitch that went out of bounds brought a third man home, adding up to five runs in just a few batters.

After that, Santa Rosa kept going in the fifth inning to score two more runs.

The score stayed at 7 to 2 for the sixth and seventh innings, with Healdsburg still hoping for a chance to come back.

But hopes faded when Gnats catcher Jake Halady batted in two more runs, followed in the ninth inning with four more.

"We're just going to have to work on it," Hunter said of his Owls team. "We'll come back next week and play again."

Hunter said part of the problem was that some of his players, who are mostly former high school and college baseball players, simply didn't show up for Saturday's game. Some, like Rubenstein, had to travel long distances to play.

Rubenstein, a former pitcher for Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, Marin County -- where he lives -- said traffic to Healdsburg Saturday going north on Highway 101 was "really bad through Novato."

Healdsburg next plays the Oakville Aces at Rec Park on Saturday, July 2, at 6:30 p.m. For a schedule, click here.