FREMONT — A three-hour ride to Fremont didn”t hurt the Upper Lake Cougars in the least Wednesday as they battered Fremont Christian 16-1 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division V softball playoffs.
Next up for the No. 8-seeded Cougars (12-8) is undefeated No. 1 seed College Prep of Oakland. They”ll square off Saturday in the quarterfinals at Berkeley”s Fielding Field. First pitch is 2 p.m.
“They”ve got pitching,” Upper Lake coach Kelly Coburn said of College Prep, “but Lakeport (Clear Lake) has pitching too and we played pretty well against them the last time. If we can play like that we can beat them.”
The Cougars had no trouble solving the offerings of the Fremont Christian pitcher, who walked 11.
“She was slow and we didn”t have any problem,” Coburn said of the 16 hits her team collected.
Upper Lake won minus starting catcher Rebecca Swaney, who was unable to play because of her participation in a band concert. She”ll be ready to go Saturday against College Prep, according to Coburn. Amber McQueen filled in behind the plate.
“She did an awesome job back there,” Coburn said.
Upper Lake scored in every inning of the five-inning game, including a five-run first and a six-run fourth.
Winning pitcher Katherine Edmonds went 3-for-4 with a RBI and Taryn Re went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.
In other playoff action Wednesday:
Baseball
St. Joseph”s 13, Kelseyville 2
At Alameda, Kelsey-ville grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning but St. Joseph”s roared back with four runs in the bottom of the inning and went on to rout the Knights in a first-round Division IV baseball game.
St. Joseph”s led 8-2 after two innings, chasing Kelseyville starter Mike DeGregorio in the second. He went one-plus innings and allowed seven runs.
“Mike was wild and didn”t get it done,” Kelseyville coach Lou Poloni said.
“They are a good team, but we didn”t bring our A team today. It was more like the B-minus team. I”m not disappointed losing to the No. 4 seed, it”s the way we lost that I didn”t like.”
No. 13 Kelseyville (12-11) tried to make it interesting in the top of the first. Mike Davis singled with one out, stole second and scored on Blake Panos” RBI single. After DeGregorio bounced into a force play, Nick Rodrigues doubled him home to make it 2-0.
“They do a good job playing small ball, they run well and they did a good job with situational hitting,” Poloni said of St. Joseph”s. “They bunted us to death.”
Steven Grossner and Dustin Thaxton had the only other hits for Kelseyville, the North Central League I North runner-up this season.
Berean Christian 9, Clear Lake 4
At Pleasant Hill, winning pitcher Devin Alexander scattered six hits, struck out seven and walked only one as Berean Christian beat Clear Lake in a Division IV first-round game that ends the Cardinals” season.
Clear Lake beat Alexander 7-5 early last season, according to Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea.
“He”s one of three (Alexander) brothers on the team, just like we have three brothers (Bryan, Steven and Jason Edwards),” Larrea said.
Alexander outdueled Bryan Edwards, who lost for only the second time in 11 decisions this season. Edwards also went the distance, striking out seven and walking one.
“Bryan Edwards didn”t pitch all that badly,” Larrea said. “We didn”t make some plays behind him we could have made.”
Both teams scored a run in the first inning. The Eagles (14-10) pushed ahead to stay with three runs in the third and they added two more in the fourth for a 6-1 lead.
Clear Lake closed to 6-4 in the top of the fifth on a Bryan Edwards RBI single and a two-run single by Jesse Phillips. Berean Christian answered with two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth.
“We didn”t string a lot of hits together,” Larrea said. “And they”re a great hitting team.”
Berean Christian scored four times on sacrifice fly balls.
Phillips went 2-for-3 for Clear Lake and Steven Edwards went 1-for-3 with a double.
The Cardinals, NCL I South co-champions this season, finish up at 17-8.
