LAKEPORT — No matter what mistakes they make early in a game, the Clear Lake Cardinals find a way to win.
They did it again on Wed-nesday, upending No. 2 seed Moreau Catholic of Hayward 5-4 in a classic nine-inning battle in the semifinal round of the North Coast Section Division IV softball playoffs at Lakeport. The dramatic win moves Clear Lake (20-4) into the section title game Saturday at 2 p.m. in Vallejo against No. 1 seed St. Patrick-St. Vincent, the team the Cardinals beat in the 2007 championship game, also at Vallejo.
Clear Lake will be making its fourth trip to the sectional finals in nine years, but forget about making comparisons to the Cardinals” 2001, ”02 and ”07 squads, because this team is as young as it gets.
The Cardinals start just one senior — four-year veteran shortstop Kaila Sterbank — and three freshmen.
“This is way beyond what I could have hoped for,” Pickle said of the accomplishments of this year”s team. “I”m not sure how it happened. I just pray a lot.”
While the Cardinals aren”t flashy or overpowering in most areas, they are one thing ? resilient to a fault, according to Pickle. They have been all season.
“A key thing about this team is we always keep fighting no matter what,” Pickle said. “When we scored in to the top of the eighth (to go up 4-3) and they came back and hit the home run in the bottom of the inning (to tie the game), some teams would have folded up right there. We came right back with a run in the ninth.
“They”ll keep fighting if there is something to fight for,” Pickle added.
A mental lapse by the Clear Lake defense during a three-run bottom of the second put the Cardinals in a 3-1 hole, but there was never any panic against the Mariners (15-6), a solid team from top to bottom. The play in question was a two-out, two-run single by Yvonne Drabin into shallow right field that capped Moreau Catholic”s scoring in the inning. The ball was in the air a long time and appeared to be catchable, but neither freshman second baseman Heather White or freshman right fielder Emily Wingler were close to it when it finally landed.
“Mistakes by young players ? they happen,” Pickle said. “But this has been a team that makes mistakes and recovers from its mistakes all year long. If we don”t makes some mistakes early we don”t feel comfortable.”
The Cardinals closed to 3-2 in the top of the fifth when Sterbank hit the first of her two sacrifice fly balls in the game to score Vanessa Tullos, another freshman, from third base. Tullos tripled with one out, running through Pickle”s stop sign and sliding in safely just ahead of the tag. But on the same play, the Cardinals” White, the potential tying run at that point, was thrown out trying to advance from second to third.
Clear Lake tied it with a run in the sixth, Katie Reynolds bouncing a run-scoring grounder to first base to plate pinch-runner Hannah Hoffeditz from third.
And that”s when the game really got exciting.
Moreau Catholic nearly went ahead in the bottom of the sixth. With a runner at third and two outs, the Mariners” leadoff hitter, Drabin, grounded the ball to Reynolds at third. She briefly bobbled it before making a strong throw across the diamond to an outstretched first baseman Corinne McKinney, who pulled it in just as Drabin crossed the bag. The umpire called her out in a bang-bang play that had hearts pumping overtime in both dugouts and in the stands.
Clear Lake broke the tie in top of the eighth to go up 4-3. McKinney reached on an error with one out and moved up to second base on a wild pitch.
“She is not one of our fastest runners, in fact she won an award her freshman year for being the slowest,” Pickle said. “But I couldn”t pinch-run for her because I had already done it earlier in the game (in the sixth).”
Reynolds made sure McKinney”s speed woul-dn”t be a factor when she lined a double into the left-center field gap that easily scored the go-ahead run.
“It was over the middle-outer part of the plate,” Reynolds said of the 2-0 pitch from Moreau Catholic”s Shelby Long. “It was a really smooth swing, I knew I had hit it pretty well. I saw it (the ball) get by the shortstop and when I came around first I saw it get past the center fielder. That felt really good.”
The Cardinals didn”t have long to celebrate. The first batter in the bottom of the eighth, Long, drove the first pitch she saw from Liz Sanderson over the fence in left field for a game-tying home run.
Sanderson bounced right back to retire the next three batters, forcing a ninth inning.
Tullos led off the top of the ninth with a single, moved up to second on a White sacrifice bunt, to third on a wild pitch and scored on Sterbank”s sacrifice fly to medium left field. The Cardinals had to sweat it out for a few seconds when Moreau Catholic appealed to the umpires, claiming Tullos had left the bag early.
“I think we got a break on the final run,” Pickle said. “They (Moreau Catholic) saw it (Tullos leave early) but the umpire was looking at the outfielder.”
Sanderson retired the Mariners in order in the bottom of the ninth, expending just six pitches in the process. The final out was a high popup that Sterbank settled under, touching off a victory celebration in the Clear Lake dugout and in the stands.
“We”re playing with house money,” Pickle said of back-to-back playoff wins over No. 3 seed Berean Christian in the quarterfinals and No. 2 seed Moreau Catholic in the semifinals. “We were not expected to be here, we”re the underdogs.”
“We just like to win, we just want to fight,” Reynolds said after the game. “We take it one game at a time.”
Clear Lake jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first — the Cardinals lost a pre-game coin flip and were the visitors on their home field for the second playoff game in a row. Sterbank (2-for-3) led off with a single, was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Mori Jordan”s RBI grounder to shortstop.
Both teams had 11 hits even though both pitchers — Sanderson and Long — pitched well. They each struck out three and the only walk of the game was an intentional one ? Sanderson passed on Long, who was 3-for-3 with a double and home run, in the bottom of the fifth to load the bases with two outs. The strategy worked as Sanderson retired Alyssa Castillo on a grounder to third.
McKinney, Tullos and Wingler each had two hits for the Cardinals, while Danielle Gaumer went 2-for-4 for Moreau Catholic.
The Mariners had hits from eight spots in their batting order, the Cardinals from seven.
Clear Lake has 24 hits in its two playoff wins.
