UPPER LAKE — The way Upper Lake softball coach Justin Dutcher sees it, Brittany Rumfelt is about as unhittable as they come. After watching Clear Lake”s hard-throwing left-hander deal BBs at his Cougar batters for four innings on Friday, he says the Cardinals are ready for whatever awaits them in the upcoming playoffs.
“With Brittany up there throwing strikes, it”s pretty hard to stop them,” Dutcher said. “Most high school players are not going to hit her.”
Rumfelt pitched nearly perfect ball for four innings as the Clear Lake Cardinals closed out a perfect regular season — 24-0 — with a 9-2 victory over the Cougars at Upper Lake. It”s the first time a Clear Lake or Lake County softball team has posted a perfect mark and the Cardinals did it the hard way, playing the maximum numbers of games allowed by the North Coast Section and beating a handful of big schools along the way, including Ukiah twice and Maria Carrillo once.
“I think they can go a long way (in the postseason),” said Dutcher, who added that the Cardinals are hardly a one-dimensional team. “Even if you do hit the ball, they field it,” he added. “They play great defense.”
Clear Lake also collected 17 hits in the win, led by Rumfelt, who went 4-for-4 with two doubles and a RBI.
Rumfelt and most of Clear Lake”s starters departed this North Central League I South and regular-season finale for both teams after four innings. While Rumfelt was in there, the Cougars had just one baserunner — a hit batsman. She allowed no hits, struck out 10 and didn”t walk a batter, departing with a 6-0 lead.
Clear Lake scored three runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings. Upper Lake (0-8 South, 7-13 overall) scored single runs in the fifth and the seventh innings against reliever Rylie Gabehart.
In addition to winning the NCL I South again this season and going undefeated in the regular season, the Cardinals matched the school record for most victories in single season — the 2001 club went 24-3. Clear Lake will find out on Sunday in Walnut Creek where they are seeded in the eight-team North Coast Section Class A playoff field and who and where they will be playing on Tuesday in the opening round.
The Cardinals are hoping to bring home their second Class A title, the only other one coming in 2002 when Brittany Mills pitched Clear Lake to the championship. Mills is an assistant coach on this year”s team, working with the Cardinals” younger pitchers.
Clear Lake made back-to-back Class A title game appearances in 2001 and 2002, losing to Salesian (Richmond) in 2001 and beating Holy Names (Oakland) the following season.
