CLOVERDALE — The Clear Lake Cardinals threw the Cloverdale Eagles a curve on Friday while clinching the North Central League I South softball championship with a 4-2 victory at Cloverdale.
OK, so sophomore Emily Wingler doesn”t throw a curve. But her pitching repertoire of fastballs, riseballs, changeups and rollovers (acts like a slider) had the Eagles back on their heels most of the day.
“She showed really good composure out there, even in the first inning when they (Eagles) scored the two runs,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said.
Pickle decided to go with Wingler, 9-2, earlier in the week rather than senior Liz Sanderson, 11-2, and not because Sanderson has been feeling under the weather the last couple of days.
“I wanted to give them something new to look at,” Pickle said of the Eagles. “They”ve seen Liz a lot the last few years.”
Pickle also said he knew he would be second-guessed if the strategy backfired and Cloverdale (6-2, 18-4) won to earn a share of the South title.
“I guess now I”m a genius,” he joked. “She was unflappable out there today.”
Wingler pitched Clear Lake to its fourth league title in the past five seasons, three of them undisputed (2006, 2007, 2010). Had the Cardinals lost on Friday, they would have returned to Cloverdale today for a playoff game to determine who would get the league”s automatic playoff berth. That won”t happen now.
Instead, the Cardinals (8-0, 20-4) will wait until Sunday to find out where they have been seeded in the North Coast Section Division IV playoff field. Two-time defending section champion St. Patrick/St. Vincent (22-2) of Vallejo will be the No. 1 seed, so Pickle is hoping to pull down either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed, which would keep Clear Lake on the opposite side of the bracket from the favorite Bruins.
And because Clear Lake is a league champion, the Cardinals have the ability to host games through the semifinals if they can keep on winning, something they”ve done a lot of lately ? they”re on a 12-game roll.
“We really had to battle it out in this game,” Pickle said. “Cloverdale is a tough team. Their pitcher (Kena Ruiz) pitched real well today, the best I”ve seen her throw.”
Ruiz struck out 12 and walked only one. It might have been a different story for her had the Cloverdale defense not committed seven errors.
“Both shortstops today kept getting caught in between bounces,” Pickle said. “They had a little more trouble than we did.”
Cloverdale scored twice in the bottom of the first. Following an error and a sacrifice bunt to open the inning, the Eagles” Cherise McEnery, who homered twice in an 8-7 loss at Lakeport earlier this month, singled to drive in a run. Allison Marrone also singled and a two-out wild pitch made it 2-0 as McEnery scored from third.
It remained 2-0 until the top of the fourth. Mari Jordan led off with a single, stole second, and moved to third when Vanessa Tullos reached on error. Tullos promptly stole second. Rebecca Baker struck out but was safe at first when the Cloverdale catcher dropped the third strike and then threw wildly to first. Jordan and Tullos couldn”t advance but the bases were now loaded with no outs.
With Katie Reynolds at the plate, Pickle called for a suicide-squeeze bunt but Reynolds, one of the best bunters on the team, missed the ball, leaving Jordan hung up between third and home. She was tagged out after a brief rundown that allowed Tullos to move over to third and Baker to second. Both runners were still there with two outs when Corinne McKinney”s grounder to shortstop was booted for an error, Tullos scoring on the play.
“We were really tight up until then,” Pickle said. “That loosened them up.”
Clear Lake pushed ahead to stay in the top of the fifth, taking advantage of both timely hitting and more help from the Cloverdale defense.
Savannah DeKeyser got things rolling with a one-out double to the fence in left-center field. Morgan Psalmonds then reached on an error by the Cloverdale second baseman, DeKeyser advancing to third. Rylie Gabehart, coming off a 5-for-5 day on Thursday in a 17-7 win over Fort Bragg, singled home DeKeyser to knot the score at 2. Clear Lake went ahead 3-2 when the Eagles booted a grounder off Jordan”s bat, and Tullos” RBI single made it 4-2.
Cloverdale”s only other hit after the first inning was a one-out single by McEnery (2-for-3) in the bottom of the sixth. Wingler struck out the next two batters looking to end the inning. She followed that up with a 1-2-3 seventh.
“Yeah, it”s exciting,” Pickle said of his team”s biggest win of the season. “I think one reason the girls were tight early on was because this game really meant a lot to them. They really wanted it all (the league title) to themselves.”
There were no controversial calls in the second league meeting between the two teams, according to Pickle, who said the Cardinals flat out won the game.
“She was very complimentary after the game,” Pickle said of Cloverdale counterpart Margaret Fitzgerald. “She complimented Emily.”
Wingler struck out six and walked none.
Cloverdale will advance to the playoffs as an at-large team.
