LAKEPORT — Senior first baseman Rylie Gabehart is getting hot at the perfect time for the Clear Lake Cardinals, 17-7 winners over the Fort Bragg Timberwolves on Thursday afternoon in a North Central League I interlock softball game that wasn”t without significance.
Fort Bragg (16-7), the NCL I North champion this season, needed a win to gain the upper hand over NCL I South leader Clear Lake (19-5) in terms of seeding for next week”s North Coast Section Division IV playoffs. While that didn”t happen, thanks in large part to Gabehart”s 5-for-5 day at the plate, it still remains to be seen where the Cardinals will end up in the South race, which isn”t over yet.
Clear Lake (7-0) travels to Cloverdale (6-1) today for its final league game. And it”s a biggie. If the Cardinals prevail, they”ll complete a perfect South run and likely pull down a high seed for the playoffs as well as the opportunity to host postseason games through the semifinals. If they lose, they”ll share the league title with Cloverdale and play the Eagles again on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Cloverdale to determine who gets the league”s automatic playoff berth.
“It”s going to be a war,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said of today”s game in Cloverdale. “Our margin for error is very slight, but the pressure is on them.”
Clear Lake had a much wider margin for error against Fort Bragg and needed it. While the Cardinals scored in every inning and went on to 10-run the Timberwolves with two runs in the bottom of the sixth, the game was a long and twisting roller coaster ride for Pickle, who watched his team build an 8-1 lead in the first three innings only to see Fort Bragg roar back with a six-run top of the fourth to make it 8-7.
“We had a really good game on offense today but our pitching and defense wasn”t there,” Pickle said. “Earlier in the week (a 7-0 win at Upper Lake on Tuesday) we had the pitching and defense, but not so much the hitting. If we can get a complete game against Cloverdale, I like our chances.”
Gabehart, honored as Clear Lake”s female scholar-athlete at the Press Democrat All-Empire Athlete of the Year banquet on Wednesday, missed the cycle by a triple. She homered in her initial at-bat, a solo blast to right field in the bottom of the first inning to put Clear Lake on the scoreboard, singled in the second and fourth innings, doubled home a run in the fifth and singled to drive in a run in the sixth to give the Cardinals a 16-7 lead. Mari Jordan followed with a bases-loaded walk to end the game.
“She”s getting hot at the perfect time and that”s what you need,” Pickle said with an eye toward today”s game at Cloverdale.
With the wind blowing out on Thursday, both teams, but especially the Cardinals, took advantage. Gabehart”s solo home run was followed two batters later by a two-run shot to left-center field off the bat of Vanessa Tullos, her second homer in three games. Clear Lake added a fourth run in the inning on Corinne McKinney”s RBI groundout.
Fort Bragg got one of those runs back in the top of the second before Clear Lake answered with three in the bottom of the inning, including a Tullos RBI single.
Clear Lake made it 8-1 in the third on Heather White”s solo home run to left-center field.
Fort Bragg roared back to life in the top of the fourth. Kendra Bradley”s two-run home run to left field made it 8-3 and it looked like the damage would end there as Clear Lake pitcher Liz Sanderson retired the next two batters. But a two-out walk and a hit batsman kept the inning alive and the Timberwolves made the most of it. Hillary Davenport singled home two runs to make it 8-5, a Sabrina Rowan single combined with an error on the play cut the Cardinals” lead to 8-6, and losing pitcher Cassidy Lowe bounced a ground-rule double over the left-field fence to make it 8-7.
Pickle went to his bullpen and Emily Wingler replaced Sanderson. Wingler worked the count to 2-2 on the first batter she faced but the inning ended at that point as Lowe was gunned down trying to steal third.
“That really bailed us out,” Pickle said of the baserunning mistake.
Wingler blanked the Timberwolves on two hits over the final two innings, striking out two and walking none.
Sanderson allowed all seven Fort Bragg runs on seven hits while striking out two and walking two.
“She was sick and she didn”t tell me,” Pickle said. “She”s a warrior.”
Clear Lake lengthened its lead the rest of the game, getting five runs in the bottom of the fourth, two scoring on White”s triple, two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
Tullos finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs and White and Rebecca Baker each had two hits while combining for five RBIs.
While the wind provided hitters with the opportunity to go deep, it also caused plenty of havoc in the outfield for both teams. A handful of fly balls that should have been caught fell untouched or were badly misplayed.
The two teams combined for six errors.
There also was a defensive gem courtesy of Gabehart, who turned a bad-hop grounder into an inning-ending 3-6-4 double play in the top of the sixth.
“Great play,” Pickle said.
