UKIAH — Emily Wingler tossed a two-hitter and Heather White smacked her fifth and sixth home runs of the season, setting a school record in the process, as the Clear Lake Cardinals blanked El Molino 10-0 in the seventh-place game of the Ukiah Tournament on Saturday at Ukiah High School.
Clear Lake (13-2) dropped a 6-1 decision to Montgomery earlier in the day in the consolation semifinals.
Pitching her fourth game in three days — Clear Lake lost 9-0 to eventual tournament champion Sonoma on Friday — Wingler struck out four and walked only one in the five-inning game. Her combined pitched count for the three tournament games and a wild 17-16 eight-inning victory over Cloverdale on Thursday was in excess of 400, according to Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle.
After a break on Monday, Wingler and the Cardinals return to action today in Petaluma against St. Vincent in a key North Central League I South contest at 4 p.m.
White (4-for-4) singled in each of her first two at-bats against El Molino. She blasted a solo shot to left-center field in the top of the fourth inning to give the Cardinals a 7-0 lead. She came up again in the fifth and smacked a two-run homer to left-center.
The six home runs is a single-season Clear Lake record, breaking the mark set by Mari Jordan last season with four (White was second on the team with three). White is also tied for the Cardinals” career home run record with seven.
Morgan Psalmonds and Rebecca Baker each went 2-for-4 with a RBI for the Cardinals, who took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. They batted around in the second, scoring five times for a 6-0 advantage.
Earlier in the day against Montgomery, Clear Lake trailed 3-0 entering the bottom of the second. The Cardinals closed to 3-1 on a RBI double by Vanessa Tullos and went on to load the bases with no outs, only to come up empty after that. The Vikings” pitcher retired each of the next three batters, the first two on infield popups.
Montgomery held its 3-1 advantage until putting the game away with a three-run fifth.
Wingler struck out two and walked three while allowing three earned runs.
Tullos went 2-for-2 and Coree Alexander went 2-for-3.
“We were defensive at the plate, not attacking,” Pickle season. “But I was pretty happy with the demeanor of the team. We lost to a good club.”
