LAKEPORT — One of the hardest lessons to learn in sports is that sometimes you play well and lose anyway.
The Clear Lake Cardinals found that out on Saturday, dropping a 5-3 decision to Justin-Siena of Napa in a non-league softball game matching two teams who could meet again in the North Coast Section Class A playoffs next month.
“I”m happy with the way we played,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said of his young Cardinals squad. “We”re not going to play a lot better than that the rest of the season.”
Justin-Siena, a Class A team playing in the predominantly Class 2A Marin County Athletic League, spotted the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead but came alive in a big way during a five-run fifth inning. The Braves (7-5) sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning, collected seven hits, four of them doubles, and then held off the Cardinals (9-4) down the stretch.
“We knew they could hit the ball,” Pickle said of the 14 hits the Braves collected against losing pitcher Liz Sanderson, who went the distance, striking out five and walking none.
“They put their hits together at the right time,” Pickle said. “I actually thought she (Sanderson) pitched a pretty good game, but she made one or two mistakes in the strike zone (during the fifth) that cost her.”
Clear Lake mounted a major threat in the bottom of the fifth, loading the bases with two outs against Adri Schwartz, the second of three Justin-Siena pitchers. Julie Jackson blooped a ball into shallow center field that Braves shortstop Rachelle Whitehead tracked down with an over-the-shoulder catch to end the inning.
“That was the play of the game,” Pickle said. “If that ball falls we get at least two runs.”
Clear Lake did pick up a run in the sixth on Rebecca Baker”s RBI sacrifice bunt, but it might have been a bigger inning for the Cardinals had not Justin-Siena”s second baseman made a fine backhand stab of a hard-hit ball headed up the middle and thrown out Candy Diener to open the inning.
Justin-Siena flashed some more leather to open the bottom of the seventh with the Cardinals trailing by just two runs. Apryl Comstock, facing hard-throwing reliever Caroline Devincenzi, fell behind in the count 0-2, fouled off a pitch and then scorched a liner that Schwartz, who had moved from pitcher to second base, snared before it could find its way into right field. It turned into an even bigger play when Devincenzi walked the next batter, Kaila Sterbank. She retired both Samantha Espinoza and Jackson on grounders to end the game.
Schwartz earned the win with four innings of relief and Devincenzi got the save. Lauren Mallin pitched the first two innings and allowed single runs in the first and second.
Haley Breakwell and Jean-ette Alverez each had three hits for the Braves. Mori Jordan went 2-for-3 with a double for Clear Lake. The double, a shot off the center field fence in the bottom of the sixth, missed being a home run by about a foot.
Neither team committed an error and there were only two walks, both issued by Justin-Siena pitching.
“It was a good move on their part,” Pickle said of Jus-tin-Siena”s pitching changes. “They all threw at different speeds and it took us awhile to get used to each pitcher. It kept us off-balance a little bit.”
Clear Lake hosts Middletown today at 4 p.m.
