LAKEPORT — Coming off an emotional 9-8 league-opening win a day earlier against rival Cloverdale, the Clear Lake Cardinals were teetering on lethargic for most of their non-league softball game Saturday at home against Branson School of Ross.
And it wasn”t just a meaningless game for the Cardinals, who rallied from a 3-2 deficit with eight sixth-inning runs to beat the private school 10-3 on a windy and unseasonably cold spring day at Clear Lake High School. Branson, a member of the Marin County Athletic League, already owns two wins this season over Justin-Siena of Napa, a team that rallied from behind to beat Clear Lake 5-3 two weeks ago in Lakeport.
“Justin hits the ball better, but Branson”s pitcher pretty well shut them down the two times they played,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said in comparing the two MCAL schools, both of whom could be battling Clear Lake for a playoff spot next month when the North Coast Section Class A playoffs roll around.
Branson pitcher Kaela Guillion was staring at a 2-1 deficit through five innings as her teammates had yet to find the hit column against Clear Lake pitcher Liz Sanderson. But Lucy Driggs led off the sixth with an infield single to deep shortstop to break up Sanderson”s no-hitter and Sonya Vauits tripled to the fence in left field to knot the score at 2. Sanderson struck out Katharine Jessup for the first out of the inning. Her first pitch to Alex Cook appeared as though it would produce the second out when Cook hit a hard grounder to shortstop Kaila Sterbank, whose throw home arrived ahead of Vauits, who broke for the plate on contact.
Clear Lake catcher Julie Jackson applied the tag as Vauits slid home and home plate umpire Jim Farenbaugh was in the process of calling Vauits out when the ball popped out of Jackson”s glove at the last second, resulting in a safe call and a 3-2 Branson lead. Sanderson retired the next two batters to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
Before the Cardinals (12-4) came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, Pickle, hearing laughter from his bench players as Branson forged ahead in the top of the sixth, didn”t exactly appreciate it and he lit into his bench pretty good, at one point saying, “I could use a laugh right now, why don”t you tell me what”s so funny?”
Whether or not Pickle”s outburst had anything to do with what transpired in the bottom of the sixth, the Cardinals, who had failed to score a runner from third base with less than two outs in the bottom of the fifth, suddenly regained their focus — and their hitting stride.
Eight of the first nine Cardinals to bat in the bottom of the sixth reached base. Mori Jordan led off the inning with an infield single and stole second base after Katie Reynolds popped out to second base. Rylie Gabehart followed with the signature at-bat of the game for Clear Lake, fouling off four straight two-strike offerings from Gullion before swatting a 3-2 pitch back up the middle for a run-scoring single. Pinch-hitter Tasha Herrera made it two big at-bats in a row with a double into right-center field that scored Gabehart to give Clear Lake a 4-3 lead.
“We had a couple of key at-bats in that inning,” Pickle said of Gabehart and Herrera”s back-to-back run-scoring hits. “Rylie really battled hard and Tasha gave me what I”ve been looking for all year … someone who could come up in that type of situation and get a big hit. Tasha delivered.”
Apryl Comstock followed with a single, sending pinch-runner Rebecca Baker to third base, and Sterbank drew a walk to load the bases for Samantha Espinoza, who bounced a grounder to third base. The throw home arrived in plenty of time but was low and the catcher couldn”t hold it as Baker scored to make it 5-3. Julie Jackson promptly emptied the bases with a three-run triple to the fence in left-center field.
The big inning continued with Candy Diener”s RBI double that made it 9-3. Jordan”s groundout sent Diener to third and Reynolds knocked her home with a single to make it 10-3.
“Early in the season we were scoring all our runners but then we hit a little spell where we were leaving too many runners on base,” Pickle said. “Today we got all the runners off the bases (in the sixth).”
Both teams scored a run in the first inning, the Cardinals” coming on Jordan”s infield RBI single. Clear Lake forged ahead 2-1 in the third on Espinoza”s ground-rule double, a passed ball, and Jackson”s sacrifice fly.
Sanderson finished with a three-hitter, struck out six and walked four one day after going the distance against Cloverdale.
“Liz did a really good job coming off an emotional game against Cloverdale,” Pickle said. “And her back was sore today, so I”m happy with her effort.”
Pickle was just as unhappy with his defense, which committed a pair of physical errors but also a handful of mental ones.
“I”m disappointed in the defense, we played poorly,” Pickle said. “We”ll have to play better if we expect to compete in our league.”
Jordan and Diener, who doubled twice, each had a pair of hits. Jackson finished with four RBIs.
Clear Lake faces a battle for first place today at home against St. Vincent (2-0) in North Central League I South action. First pitch is 4 p.m. A win would move Clear Lake (1-0) atop the standings.
