LAKEPORT — The home team won and the home team lost. Fortunately for the Clear Lake Cardinals, they were the home team that won on Saturday, beating Berean Christian of Walnut Creek 4-2 in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division IV softball playoffs at Lakeport.
While the game physically took place on sixth-seeded Clear Lake”s home field, third-seeded Berean Christian (16-7) was the official home team because of its status as the higher seed — No. 3. It”s the first time that”s happened to the Cardinals in numerous playoffs games over the past 17 seasons.
“It”s never happened to me before,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said of winning a playoff game in Lakeport as the visiting team. “It doesn”t really make any sense.”
It”s also the first time a Pickle-coached Clear Lake team has defeated Berean Christian in the playoffs — at any location. The Cardinals lost to the Eagles in the 2004 and ”05 semifinals and had dropped at least their last four meetings to the Eagles.
And in another first that bodes well for the future of Lake County”s top softball program, the Cardinals won on Saturday starting three freshmen.
“That”s the first time in a playoff game I”ve started three freshmen,” said Pickle, who was participating in his 31st playoff game at Clear Lake. “I thought they did a really outstanding job.”
The three freshmen — right fielder Emily Wingler, center fielder Vanessa Tullos and second baseman Heather White — were a combined 4-for-10 at the plate with a double, part of a 13-hit Clear Lake attack that supported the standout pitching of Liz Sanderson, who tossed a three-hitter and retired the final 13 batters she faced.
“That was probably her best game in a big-game situation,” Pickle said.
Clear Lake (19-4) also made the most of its status as visitor, according to Pickle.
“I like to look for the good in things and I told them that if we could get up early, I thought it would make them play uphill a little bit,” Pickle said.
Clear Lake catcher Mori Jordan immediately put the pressure on Berean Christian, crushing a belt-high 1-2 fastball deep to center field for a no-doubt-about-it two-run home run in the top of the first. Kaila Sterbank, who led off the game with an infield single, scored ahead of Jordan.
Berean Christian rallied back to tie it with single runs in the second and third innings. Megan Dalton”s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the second scored teammate Alex McCullough, who led off the inning with a blistering double to left field that caught a piece of outfielder Rylie Gabehart”s arm. In the third, a rare fielding error by Sterbank at shortstop set up a two-out run-scoring double by Jessie Griffith.
Clear Lake, which had squandered scoring opportunities in the second and third innings, leaving a total of five runners on base, came right back to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth. Tullos doubled on an 0-2 pitch from Megan Dalton with one out and White sacrificed her to third. Sterbank followed by grounding a hard shot into the hole at shortstop. While Danae Leiser made a fine diving play just to glove the ball, she had no chance to throw out the ultra-quick Sterbank as Tullos scored what would prove to be the game-winning run.
Clear Lake kept the pressure on in the fifth, getting runners to second and third with one out, but again came up empty.
In the sixth, White blooped a single into right field leading off the inning and stole second. She was still there with two outs when Jordan (3-for-4) smacked a crisp RBI single up the middle to make it 4-2.
“She started getting hot the last week of the season,” Pickle said of Jordan, who leads the Cardinals with 40 hits and 41 RBIs this season.
Sanderson retired the heart of Berean Christian”s dangerous batting order 1-2-3 in the sixth, and she retired the side in the seventh to end the game and send Clear Lake into Wednesday”s semifinals against No. 2 Moreau Catholic (15-5) of Hayward, a 14-3 winner over Cloverdale in another quarterfinal-round game on Saturday. The Cardinals will once again host the game at 5 p.m., but a coin flip will determine who is the home team and who is the visitor.
Tullos, Sterbank, Gabehart, White and Corinne McKinney had two hits apiece for the Cardinals. Tullos, who wears No. 15, celebrated her 15th birthday.
