LAKEPORT — There”s probably no greater tribute to Brittany Rumfelt than this. The senior had such a great softball season for Clear Lake that no one remembers what a fantastic basketball player she was for the Cardinals.
Rumfelt, whose entire four years of laboring on the mound for the Cardinals boiled down to one pitch on a warm May 26 afternoon in Vallejo, is the Lake County Record-Bee Athlete of the Year for girls” sports following the recently completed 2006-07 high school season.
It was a season of record after record for the hard-throwing and hard-hitting left-hander, whose next stop is the University of Oregon on a softball scholarship. And here”s yet another honor she”ll take with her to the great Northwest. Rumfelt is only the second Lake County athlete to earn back-to-back Athlete of the Year honors, joining former Upper Lake three-sport star Shannon Melville (1988-90).
While the 18-year-old Rumfelt was rolling up a 24-0 record for the Cardinals during a perfect 27-0 season, she struck out 249 batters in 145 innings while compiling an ERA so low (0.45) that the Hubble Telescope would have trouble detecting it. She was no less a terror at the plate, batting .500 from the clean-up position and leading Lake County in nearly every category that charts offense.
But all the statistics and all the wins in a row never distracted Rumfelt or her teammates, who had their eyes set on the prize of a section championship almost from day one of practice.
“We always went from game to game and really never talked about it (the winning streak,),” Rumfelt said a couple of weeks after blowing a 1-2 rise ball past Jackie Domecus to secure Clear Lake”s 2-1 win over St. Patrick/St. Vincent in the North Coast Section Class A championship game at Vallejo.
Rumfelt struck out the final two batters she faced in that game and finished with 13 punchouts overall.
“We wanted to get past the semifinals,” Rumfelt said of Clear Lake”s original goal upon entering the eight-team Class A tournament. “Of course, once you win in the semifinals you want to win it (the section title).”
With Rumfelt on the mound in 2004, ”05 and ”06, Clear Lake”s season ended with semifinal-round losses in the playoffs. That wouldn”t happen in 2007.
“St. Patrick/St. Vincent handed us our last loss (in 2006), so it was kind of cool to beat them,” Rumfelt said.
The magnitude of Clear Lake”s victory over the Bruins — the Cardinals” third playoff win in as many games against private school opponents — didn”t hit Rumfelt all at once.
“You can”t put it into words, but it”s something I”ll never forget,” she said.
Rumfelt had no problem recounting her final pitch as a high school player against Domecus, with the potential tying run standing at first base with two outs in the top of the seventh.
“It was a rise ball … and I put everything I had left into it,” Rumfelt said.
After Domecus struck out to end the game, Rumfelt said she really didn”t know what to do at first. “I was too jacked up … and everyone was running onto the field … I was just looking for someone to hug.”
Less than 30 minutes later, Rumfelt was back on the road heading to Sacramento where her summer league traveling team, the California Haze, were participating in a tournament.
“I pitched that same day, I think three innings, but my head really wasn”t into it,” Rumfelt said. “I was still pretty wound up.”
One of six seniors on a team that would go on to post the best single-season Division IV record in state history, according to Cal-Hi Sports, Rumfelt said the one word that describes this year”s Clear Lake club is “determined.”
It was also a close-knit group, and not just the seniors, but juniors, sophomores and a large group of freshmen.
“We had each other”s backs the whole season,” Rumfelt said. “We looked after each other, we cared about each other.”
Rumfelt credited her coach, Gary Pickle, with keeping the team focused and on track throughout the season.
“He”s been an awesome coach,” Rumfelt said. “He let us have fun but he also made sure we were getting it done. As long as we stayed focused, he let us have fun.”
How much fun?
“We TP-ed (toilet-papered) his house once a year,” Rumfelt said.
Pickle, warned in advance prior to the last drive-by TP-ing, was waiting with a fully charged garden hose.
“Yeah, that was a surprise,” Rumfelt said.
Another surprise is just how good a basketball player Rumfelt was for the Cardinals in 2006-07. The center, always double-teamed and often triple-teamed by the opposition, never let that get in her way. She averaged 19.8 points a game — the best scoring average by any county girl or boy — and scored a county-best 476 points, pushing her three-year career total to 1,278, the ninth-best career total by a Lake County player and the fourth best by a county girl.
“I love playing basketball and I play whenever I can,” Rumfelt said.
Though the Cardinals were never a force in the North Central League I South standings during her basketball career, Rumfelt”s senior season easily was the best of her three-year varsity career. Clear Lake finished 5-3 in league (third place) and 13-11 overall.
“I think we had talent, too,” Rumfelt said of the 2006-07 Cardinals, including a supporting cast that featured Emilee Meyer, Julie Jackson, Kaila Sterbank and Molly Ryan.
Meyer, Jackson and Sterbank all would star with Rumfelt on the softball diamond later that spring.
Meyer, a point guard in basketball and the Cardinals” All-League first-team right fielder in softball, is Rumfelt”s best friend. When the going got tough in either sport for Rumfelt, the one person she could depend on to give her a lift was the red-headed Meyer.
“Emilee can loosen me up,” a smiling Rumfelt said. “She”s one person I”m really going to miss when I”m at Oregon.”
Jackson, who will return for her senior season in 2007-08, is another of Rumfelt”s friends.
“I grew up with her,” Rumfelt said of the diminutive Jackson, who had her doubters when she inherited the starting catcher”s job prior to the 2006 season —
Rumfelt”s junior year.
Rumfelt wasn”t one of them.
“She”s always been good and I knew she could handle it back there (behind the plate),” Rumfelt said of Jackson, also an All-League first-team selection. “I never even considered her a junior,” Rumfelt said of Jackson. “She played the entire season like a senior. So did Kaila (Sterbank, a sophomore).”
Moving on to Oregon, Rumfelt cherises the thought of one day pitching on TV for the Ducks during an appearance in the NCAA Championships.
Though there is no guarantee Rumfelt will be starting for the Ducks, she has every expectation of doing just that.
“It”s very exciting and I”m stoked about it,” Rumfelt said.
The MVP in the NCL I South in both basketball and softball this past season, Rumfelt hasn”t settled on a major yet and is keeping her options open.
Pickle has no doubt she”ll be a success at whatever she sets her mind to, including a possible future occupation of toilet-papering houses.
“That”s one thing about Gary … he always gets in the last jab,” Rumfelt said.
So does Rumfelt. Just ask the competition.
