LOWER LAKE >> It’s true pitchers are usually ahead of hitters early in a baseball season, but the Upper Lake Cougars have got to be wondering when the hits will start flowing after being no-hit for a second day in a row.
Lower Lake did the honors on Thursday by blanking Upper Lake 11-0 in a non-league game called after five innings at Lower Lake High School. Only one day after being no-hit in a 24-0 season-opening loss at Kelseyville, the Cougars again struggled at the plate. They did have a handful of baserunners courtesy of walks and errors, just no hits. It’s the first time a Lake County varsity baseball team has been no-hit in back-to-back games since the Record-Bee began keeping official records in the early 1980s.
“I’ll take it any way I can get it,” Lower Lake coach John McCarthy said of the victory, Lower Lake’s second in three games this season and matching the team’s two wins from last season when the Trojans finished 2-19.
Unlike the Kelseyville game on Wednesday when five different pitchers tossed an inning apiece against Upper Lake, Lower Lake starter David Rank worked four innings for the victory, striking out five and walking two. Ryan McCarthy kept the no-hitter in order in the top of the fifth, striking out two in the inning.
“It’s not the best I’ve seen him pitch, but he pitched pretty well,” McCarthy said of Rank.
Lower Lake reached double-digit runs despite getting only four hits — Rank, Michael James, Ian Stiles and Sean McCarthy, who drove in three of the Trojans’ runs, all had singles. James’ two-run single in the bottom of the fifth ended the game because of the 10-run rule.
“I”d like to see our hitters get a lot better,” McCarthy said. “We need to get more hits. We need to work on it.”
While the Trojans didn’t hit the ball much, they did run the bases well, according to McCarthy.
“We did a good job taking the extra base,” he said. “We did a lot of that.”
Upper Lake (0-2) should have better luck today when it visits Potter Valley for a non-league game at 3:30 p.m. Lower Lake returns to action Tuesday in Forestville against El Molino at 4 p.m.
