LAKEPORT — Ten runs should have been enough for the Clear Lake Cardinals, but not on this day.
The Marin Catholic Wildcats rallied from a 10-6 deficit after blowing a 5-0 lead earlier in the game and stunned the No. 2-seeded Cardinals 12-10 in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division IV softball playoffs on Friday afternoon in Lakeport.
Christina Redmond”s second home run of the game, a two-run shot to left field in the top of the seventh, snapped a 10-10 tie and lifted the No. 7-seeded Wildcats (15-11) into the semifinals on Tuesday against No. 3 McKinleyville (21-2) at McKinleyville.
Clear Lake, the North Central League I South champion, finishes the season at 19-3 and while the Cardinals graduate only one player, center fielder Rebecca Baker, they”ll have a long time to think about what went wrong against Marin Catholic.
“I”m disappointed with it and the girls are disappointed,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said. “We do have a young team and this should motivate them to go after it next season.
“Bottom line is we didn”t play well enough to win,” Pickle said. “We played poorly behind (pitcher) Emily (Wingler) and at times Emily did not make the pitches she needed to make.”
While the Cardinals banged out 13 hits in the loss, including two home runs by Wingler, one of them a grand slam, the Wildcats did plenty of hitting themselves, including three home runs out of 11 hits overall.
“They come out of a good league and they see good pitching everyday,” Pickle said of the Wildcats. “They”re a pretty good ballclub.”
Clear Lake fell behind 2-0 on Sarah Merrion”s two-run homer in the top of the first inning, an at-bat that was made possible because the Cardinals committed an error earlier in the inning. Even more damaging, they let a foul popup drop near the plate during Merrion”s at-bat — she homered two pitches later, a drive deep to left-center field.
“You give a good team second chances and they”ll beat you,” Pickle said.
Marin Catholic added three more runs to go up 5-0 in the third on a clutch two-out RBI double by Merrion and a dropped fly ball that allowed two runs to cross the plate.
“We catch that fly ball all the time,” Pickle said.
The Cardnials came roaring back in the bottom of the third, helping themselves with three hits in the inning and also getting help from the Wildcats in the form of two errors. Heather White”s RBI single to left field and a throwing error on the play, which allowed a second run to score, made it 5-2. Coree Alexander followed with a sacrifice fly to deep center field to make it 5-3, and Wingler drove a 1-2 pitch over the left-field fence for a home run to slice Marin Catholic”s advantage to 5-4.
The Wildcats got one of those runs back in the top of the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Cori Lanigan (3-for-4) to go up 6-4, but the Cardinals needed just one swing of the bat to move in front in the bottom of the inning. Following singles by Marsha”na Sugimoto and Morgan Psalmonds and a two-out walk to Alexander, Wingler crushed an Olivia Newman pitch to left-center field for a go-ahead grand slam that made it 8-6 in Clear Lake”s favor.
Wingler worked a 1-2-3 top of the fifth before the Cardinals scored their final two runs in the bottom of the inning on a two-out slap double by Psalmonds down the left-field line, pushing the Cardinals” advantage to 10-6.
The score didn”t stay that way very long.
Redmond, 0-for-2 in the game to that point, drilled an 0-1 pitch over the left-field fence leading off the Marin Catholic sixth to make it 10-7. Meg Castella followed with a single. Wingler struck out each of the next two batters before walking the Wildcats” leadoff hitter, Allison Ng, on four pitches. Lanigan followed with a RBI single to make it 10-8 and Neika Peterson roped a double to center field to knot the score at 10.
Clear Lake got a runner to third base with two outs in the bottom of the sixth but couldn”t score.
Marin Catholic put its first batter aboard in the top of the seventh when Newman drew a walk, then Redmond, behind in the count 0-2, homered for the second straight inning, this time to deep left, for the game-winning hit.
Clear Lake”s Kelcie Reynolds reached on a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh but the Cardinals couldn”t generate any more offense. Sugimoto lined out and Psalmonds grounded out to end the game.
Reynolds, Psalmonds, Sugimoto, Winger and Baker had two hits apiece for the Cardinals. Besides Lanigan”s three hits for Marin Catholic, teammates Peterson, Merrion and Redmon had two hits each.
Winning pitcher Newman struck out seven and walked two. Wingler struck out six and walked three.
“Scoring 10 runs should be enough,” Pickle said. “We picked a bad time not to play our best game.”
Game notes: Baker, the lone Clear Lake senior, went 2-for-4 with a double in her final game and was praised at length by Pickle following the contest. “Rebecca is a wonderful girl … there are not enough nice things I could say about her. She works hard everyday, is upbeat, is loved and respected by her teammates and coaches.”
