LAKEPORT — Ashley Jackson had it all going her own way on Thursday and that was decidedly bad news for the Clear Lake Cardinals.
Jackson, a 5-foot-8 junior pitcher, came within an out of tossing a no-hitter and she also blasted a two-run homer to straightaway center field to lift the St. Patrick/St. Vincent Bruins of Vallejo to a 3-1 victory over the Cardinals in the semifinal round of the North Coast Section Class A softball playoffs in Lakeport.
The win vaults the No. 3-seeded Bruins (22-4) into the Class A championship game against No. 5 seed St. Vincent on Saturday at noon at Fricke Field, located on the University of California Berkeley campus. St. Vincent upset No. 1 seed Berean Christian of Walnut Creek 6-4 in 11 innings in the other semifinal played Thursday.
No. 2 seed Clear Lake, the North Central League I South champion in the regular season, closes out the season at 14-2, the 16th straight victim in a St. Patrick/St. Vincent winning streak that extends back to April 24, when the Bruins were upset 2-1 by John Swett in a Bay Shore Athletic League game. They went on to finish second in the BSAL behind 2A school Piedmont.
“We”ve been playing great ball our last 20 games or so and we”ve won our last 16,” St. Patrick/St. Vincent coach Rich Gigliotti said. “We lost four of our first 10.”
Jackson handcuffed Clear Lake”s offense until the bottom of the seventh with a changeup that featured so much down action that the Cardinals were beating the ball into the ground all day long.
“She”s the best pitcher we”ve faced this season,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said of Jackson, who also throws a pretty good fastball that seems even faster when her changeup is biting the corners of the strike zone.
“Her ball spins downs and we couldn”t lift it,” Pickle said.
Of the 21 outs made by the Cardinals, six were strikeouts and the rest groundouts. St. Patrick/St. Vincent committed one error ? that in the bottom of the seventh when the Cardinals scored their lone run ? but otherwise was flawless in the field.
“We”ve got more talent than I”ve ever had here,” Gigliotti said of his Bruins, who will be playing for their first NCS title when they take on St. Vincent. The Bruins did win a sectional title back in 1997 when they belonged to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Section.
“That”s a talented, well-coached team,” Pickle added. “All of their players play club ball and you can tell.”
While Jackson was pitching up a storm for the Bruins ? she allowed only two baserunners, both on walks, through the first six innings and didn”t allow a runner past second base until the seventh ? she also had a perfect day at the plate, going 3-for-3. After singling in the second and stealing second, where she remained, Jackson legged out an infield single to second base in the top of the fourth, two batters after teammate Courtney Peretto tied into an 0-2 Brittany Rumfelt rise ball and drilled it just over the left-center field fence to make it 1-0.
Peretto, the winning pitcher in the Bruins” 13-0 first-round win over Fort Bragg on Tuesday, had two of her team”s seven hits.
“Oh yes,” Gigliotti said when asked if he was surprised Peretto got such a good pitch to hit on 0-2. “That was a mistake by their pitcher and Courtney jumped all over it. She”s really been hitting the ball well for us since a tournament we were in after the (spring) break. Throw that tournament out and she”s hitting about .500.”
“It was a rise ball that didn”t,” Pickle said. “If you don”t throw it right it floats up into the strike zone … and ends up on the other side of the fence.”
Peretto”s home run was all the scoring until the top of the sixth when Peretto singled to right field with one out. She moved up to second base on a wild pitch with two outs at which point Pickle asked for time and huddled with his pitcher, catcher and infielders at the mound.
“It looked like the wheels were starting to come off and I was trying to refocus them,” Pickle said.
Jackson foiled the strategy, hitting Rumfelt”s next pitch, a fastball, over the fence in center — a no-doubter from the time it left the bat.
“That”s her third or fourth homer,” Gigliotti said. “She”s a pretty good player and she hit a pretty good pitch there.”
Jackson”s home run proved to be the difference when the Cardinals, as has been their habit this season in tight games, mounted a seventh-inning rally.
Haley Sanderson reached on an error by first baseman Jacqueline Domecus, who couldn”t handle a grounder up the line, but Domecus came right back with a sensational play, diving to her right to glove a hot smash off the bat of Rumfelt. Domecus got up and scrambled to the bag for the putout as Sanderson moved up to second.
Sanderson advanced to third on Amanda Espinoza”s groundout to third base and scored on Jen Carley”s single back up the middle, which broke up Jackson”s no-hit and shutout bids. Kacie Hinchcliff worked the count to 2-2 before grounding out to second base to end the game.
“Earlier in the season we were not getting the big hit or big out when we needed it, but since then we”ve done a great job of doing that,” Gigliotti said.
The Bruins lose only three seniors to graduation and the Cardinals just one, a fact not lost on Gigliotti.
“They”re a good team and they”re only going to get better,” he said.
