UKIAH — It wasn”t easy and it wasn”t pretty, but the Clear Lake Cardinals finally beat the Ukiah Wildcats, going 11 innings for a 6-5 victory in a non-league softball thriller at Ukiah.
“We finally got ”em,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said of the Wildcats, who have caused the Cardinals (5-0) all kinds of grief in recent seasons. “It wasn”t a pretty game but we hung in there and battled through a lot of mistakes.”
Clear Lake scored twice in the top of the sixth inning on Candy Diener”s home run to deep right-center field to go ahead 4-2. But the Cardinals” defense gave those two runs right back in the bottom of the inning after mishandling a sacrifice bunt, the resulting error allowing two runs to score.
The game remained tied through nine innings and the tie-breaker format was used once the 10th inning began. Under that format, a team begins an inning with a runner at second base (that runner is the player who made the last out in the previous inning).
In Clear Lake”s half of the 10th, Samantha Espinoza began the inning at second. A walk to Kaila Sterbank and a bunt single by Emilee Meyer loaded the bases for Julie Jackson, who bounced into what appeared to be a force play at the plate, only the Ukiah catcher dropped the ball for an error as Espinoza scored to make it 5-4.
The Cardinals still had the bases loaded with no outs but couldn”t add to their lead.
“We missed a lot of scoring opportunities,” Pickle said. “Our situational hitting wasn”t very good. There were times when we needed a grounder or a flyball to get a run and couldn”t do it.”
Ukiah scored on a clutch two-out single in the bottom of the 10th to tie the game at 5.
“I thought about walking the girl but decided to pitch to her,” Pickle said. “And with two strikes she hit the ball just inside the right-field line.”
Diener began the inning at second base to start the top of the 11th. Apryl Comstock pinch-ran for Diener and took third on a passed ball before scoring on Jen Carley”s sacrifice fly.
Rumfelt struck out the first batter she faced in the bottom of the 11th. Ukiah then sacrificed to move its runner to third base but a popup to second base ended the marathon game.
“We played forever,” Pickle said. “It seemed like two games.”
Both pitchers went the distance. Rumfelt scattered eight hits, struck out 15 and walked only two.
Carley, in addition to her game-winning sacrifice fly, went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Haley Sanderson went 2-for-5 and Diener finished 1-for-5 with the home run.
“It was a nice shot,” Pickle said of Diener”s first high school home run. “She was pretty pumped.”
Clear Lake is 3-0 against North Bay League teams this season, having already beaten Maria Carrillo and Elsie Allen.
