UPPER LAKE — Brittany Rumfelt pitched a five-hitter and had two of Clear Lake?s six hits as the Cardinals closed out the first half of their North Central League I South softball schedule with a 10-0 victory over the Upper Lake Cougars on Monday in Upper Lake.
Clear Lake sits atop the South standings at 4-0 and the Cardinals are 9-1 overall.
Upper Lake (0-4 South, 7-6 overall) kept it close and trailed only 2-0 after four innings. Clear Lake padded its lead with two runs in the fifth and then broke it open with a six-run sixth.
?We went from a pretty good team to the Bad News Bears for half an inning,? Upper Lake coach Craig Kinser said of the top of the sixth.
It was the third tough South game for the Cougars, following on the heels of losses to Cloverdale and St. Vincent.
?We?ve played 18 innings in those games and had two bad half-innings against three really good teams,? Kinser said.
Upper Lake struck out only six times against Rumfelt.
?Better teams than us have struck out a lot more than that against her,? Kinser said. ?Rumfelt?s tough to hit.?
Rumfelt went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Candy Diener went 2-for-2 with two doubles and four RBIs for the Cardinals. Jennifer Cox went 2-for-3 for Upper Lake.
?Clear Lake is a well-coached and well-prepared team and we were happy to hang in with them,? Kinser added.
