LOWER LAKE — The excitement is back in Clear Lake High School baseball.
So says head coach Brian Figg, who watched his 18-man squad open a new season with a dominating 10-3 win over the Lower Lake Trojans on Tuesday afternoon in Lower Lake.
Clear Lake (1-0) was one strike away from a 10-0 win when Lower Lake”s Jake Sanders slapped a triple on a 0-2 pitch with the bases loaded, driving in all of the Trojans” runs.
The rest of the game belonged to Clear Lake.
“We”re strong and don”t have many weaknesses,” Figg said of his 2007 club. “And we have 18 players and they all can play. Baseball is finally back at Clear Lake. Our numbers have been down and the interest hasn”t been there like when Adam (Bruch, assistant coach) and I played 10 years ago. But it”s back now.”
Figg was able to get every one of his 18 players at least one at-bat.
“We”re excited about the season,” Figg said. “With a little finesse, everyone will get some playing time.”
Winning pitcher Freddy Olloqui and reliever Nate Velez combined on a three-hitter. Olloqui worked the first four innings and didn”t allow a hit.
Velez, Roman Rose, Alan Moses and James Robinson had two hits apiece for the Cardinals, who had 10 in all. Velez, Robinson and Connor McCrea all had doubles.
Clear Lake scored twice in the top of the second inning and twice more in the third for a 4-0 lead. The Cardinals pushed their lead to 10-0 with three-run fourth and sixth innings.
“Olloqui kept us off-balance all day,” Lower Lake coach Chris Denny said. “They were prepared to play and we weren”t.”
Denny said the infusion of Junior League and Senior League players into the Clear Lake High system has paid huge dividends.
“They should do well in their half of the league (North Central League I South),” Denny said. “Clear Lake is a well-coached group.”
Jonathan Haws and Steven Miller had the only other Lower Lake hits.
In other baseball action Tuesday:
Upper Lake 8, Potter Valley 6
At Upper Lake, reliever Max Curtis struck out a batter with the potential tying runs at second and third to save Upper Lake”s non-league victory over the Potter Valley Bearcats.
Curtis worked three innings in relief of winning pitcher Joey Ogulin, who limited the Bearcats to one hit over the first four innings.
Curtis relieved to start the fifth and mowed down the Bearcats, but he struggled in the sixth and seventh, allowing two runs in each inning.
“We committed an error in the sixth and he got a little flustered,” Upper Lake coach Joe Ogulin Sr. said. “It got close there at the end, too close.”
Potter Valley scored twice in the top of the first inning, but the Cougars reeled off eight unanswered runs, scoring three times in the first, once in the fourth and four times in the fifth, to build an 8-2 advantage.
Jordan Hickey (3-for-4) smacked a two-run single to key the three-run uprising in the first. During the four-run fifth, Curtis had a two-run double and Jayce Meri and Steven Andre added run-scoring hits.
“We played much better today,” Ogulin said in comparing the win to the Cougars” season-opening effort, a 7-2 loss to Middletown, on Friday. “We made only two errors.”
Besides picking up the pitching win for the Cougars, Ogulin Jr. went 2-for-3 with a double and a RBI.
Willows 5, Middletown 0
At Middletown, three Willows pitchers combined to shut out Middletown on two hits — singles by Jackie Crachiola and pinch-hitter Austin Schader — and the Honkers beat the Mustangs in a non-league game at Wes Martin Field.
“We put the ball in play, hit it at people, but not very hard,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said. “We struck out only five times.”
Willows” trio of pitchers “threw strikes and walked only two,” according to Tucker. “They did a great job.”
Losing pitcher Kelly McKinley walked in a run in the top of the third inning as Willows went up 1-0. It remained a one-run game until the top of the fifth when the Honkers struck for four runs, all scoring after two were out. The big blow was a bases-loaded triple down the right-field line.
“If Kelly gets that one batter, it”s a different game,” Tucker said.
The Honkers greeted reliever Devin Nordin with a RBI triple for their final run.
McKinley allowed only four hits during his five-inning stint, striking out none and walking three.
“I thought McKinley pitched really well,” Tucker said.
