UKIAH — Heather White homered for the third straight game and Coree Alexander also went deep on Wednesday as the Clear Lake Cardinals pummeled the Ukiah Wildcats 13-4 in non-league softball action at Ukiah.
White capped a 2-for-3 day with a two-run home run to left-center field in the top of the seventh to close out Clear Lake”s scoring, her fourth home run of the season.
“They”ve got a high fence at that field, so you”ve really got to earn it,” Pickle said of White”s home run.
Alexander, Clear Lake”s shortstop, hit a solo shot to left-center field as part of a two-run third inning that boosted the Cardinals” lead to 5-0. She also played well in the field, according to Pickle.
“She made some nice plays,” Pickle said. “We made a lot of nice plays behind her (pitcher Emily Wingler).”
Clear Lake (7-0) staked Wingler to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Wingler retired the Wildcats in order in the first two innings before running into trouble in the bottom of the third. That”s when Ukiah scored all of its runs to cut the Cardinals” lead to 5-4.
But as they did a day earlier in an 18-7 win over Willits, the Cardinals answered a big inning by an opponent with their own big inning in their very next at-bat. Clear Lake pushed five runs across the plate in the top of the fourth to go up 10-4.
Equally important, Wingler slammed the door on the Wildcats in the bottom of the fourth — and the rest of the game. She retired Ukiah in order in the fourth and fifth innings, allowed just one runner to reach in the sixth, and snuffed out a two-out rally in the seventh.
“That was big,” Pickle said.
Wingler”s solid outing also extended to the plate where she went 2-for-4 with a double and a RBI, part of a 12-hit attack that featured a little bit of everything, according to Pickle.
The first two hitters in Clear Lake”s lineup, Morgan Psalmonds and Rebecca Baker, were a combined 5-for-9 on the day with a walk and six runs scored.
“They set a good tone,” Pickle said. “We had the short game going and the power game going together.”
Psalmonds finished 3-for-4 while Baker, White, Wingler and Savannah Dekeyser added two hits apiece. White finished with three RBIs and Dekeyser had two.
Clear Lake went down in order only once — in the top of the second.
“We had runners on base and kept up the pressure all day,” Pickle said.
The Cardinals return to action Friday in Middletown at 4 p.m.
