LAKEPORT — It”s as much a game of emotion and momentum as it is skill and luck.
Fortunately for the Clear Lake High School softball team and coach Gary Pickle, the Cardinals seemed to be blessed with all four of those qualities/intangibles.
Trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the seventh inning and with the bottom third of their order coming up to hit, the Cardinals rallied for two runs, using a bit of unorthodox strategy in the process, to beat St. Mary”s High School of Berkeley 2-1 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Class A playoffs at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport.
Clear Lake, the No. 2 seed, will host No. 3 St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo on Thursday in the semifinals at 4 p.m.
“I”m glad to be playing anybody,” Pickle said of the Cardinals” cardiac comeback, which is really nothing new for this team this season. They did the same thing to win North Central League I South home games against both Cloverdale and St. Vincent and went on to win the South title with an 8-0 mark.
“The power of prayer,” Pickle said only half-jokingly. “And it only gets harder from here.”
Clear Lake (14-1) was two outs away from having its season come to inauspicious end but the countdown stopped right there.
“Throughout the year our seven, eight and nine hitters have picked us up when the middle of the order has struggled and they did it again today,” Pickle said of the Cardinals” most recent comeback, which was launched by second baseman Kacie Hinchcliff, who delivered a lead-off single to open the bottom of the seventh. Julie Jackson bunted Hinchcliff into scoring position, bringing No. 9 hitter Samantha Espinoza to the plate.
And that”s when things got exciting.
Espinoza squared around and then pulled the bat back as the left side of the St. Mary”s defense crashed in to play the bunt. Espinoza didn”t take a full swing but merely chopped at a high pitch from Bijou Felder.
The results couldn”t have been any better.
Espinoza punched the ball through the vacated shortstop hole and it rolled into left field. Before the Panthers could play the ball back into the infield, Hinchcliff had scored and Espinoza was well on her way to second with a most improbable double.
“That”s a college play and we only began working on it this week,” Pickle said. “That”s the first time we had tried it.”
Pure speed won it from there for Clear Lake as Emilee Meyer collected her third hit of the day on no more than a routine grounder to shortstop Courtney Moore, whose strong throw to first wasn”t in time to get Meyer as Espinoza hustled over to third base once Moore released the ball.
That set things up for Kaila Sterbank, Clear Lake”s freshman shortstop, who was 0-for-3 on the day with two strikeouts. Sterbank chopped the ball right back to Felder as Espinoza, running on contact, broke for the plate. Felder got rid of the ball in a hurry and her throw appeared to arrive ahead of Espinoza, who slid inside and away from the tag of catcher Paige Freiberger to score the game-winning run.
“We decided that on any contact we were going,” Pickle said. “Even if they throw her out we still have a runner in scoring position with two outs and we do it all over.
“It makes their defense make the hard play because it is a tag play at the plate (and not a force),” Pickle added. “We practice going away from the tag and Sam did a great job.”
Clear Lake had no shortage of baserunners against Felder but until the seventh the Cardinals simply couldn”t get the key hit. Their best scoring opportunity until the seventh came in the bottom of the second when with runners at first and second and one out Julie Jackson hit a flyball into medium-deep left field that Linda Huie hauled in with a fine catch near the third-base line.
Clear Lake got only one runner as far as second base in the next four innings against Felder, who didn”t overpower the Cardinals but simply worked the ball inside and outside and up and down in the strike zone to keep the batters just a bit off balance.
St. Mary”s grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning with a bit of clutch hitting from Sarah McPherson, who grounded an 0-2 pitch back up the middle with two outs and a runner at third base.
“That was probably the only mistake she made all day,” Pickle said of winning pitcher Brittany Rumfelt, who struck out eight and walked only one ? a four-pitch walk to Freiberger with one out in the fourth that turned into the Panthers” lone run.
“That pitch wasn”t where we wanted it,” Pickle said. “It was too good for 0-2.”
Rumfelt made up for that gaffe and then some in the top of the sixth when the Panthers were just a hit away from putting the game out of reach. Or so it seemed at the time.
St. Mary”s had runners at second and third with one out and No. 5 hitter Jenna Starkey at the plate. Clear Lake brought its infield in all the way around hoping for a grounder right at someone and that”s exactly what happened. Starkey hit a one-hopper right back to Rumfelt, who looked the runner at third back to the bag and then pivoted and threw a strike to first baseman Amanda Espinoza for the out. It was a textbook play.
Rumfelt then worked out of the jam by retiring McPherson on a grounder to second baseman Hinchcliff, who had a busy day in the field ? she had eight assists and one putout in nine chances.
Pickle, recently honored by the North Coast Section as its softball Honor Coach of the Year, said the Cardinals got exactly what they expected in St. Mary”s.
“They”re a tough team and there would have been no shame in losing to them,” Pickle said of the No. 7-seeded Panthers (14-7), the fourth-place team in the Bay Shore Athletic League this season. “That”s one good team.”
Clear Lake”s next opponent, St. Patrick/St. Vincent, is the BSAL runner-up. The Cardinals beat the Bruins two years ago 7-3 in the opening round of the playoffs at Vallejo.
