LAKEPORT >> Pitching, power and defense served the Clear Lake Cardinals well on Saturday as they knocked off the McKinleyville Panthers 10-3 and 6-0 in a non-league varsity baseball doubleheader in Lakeport.
Talk about getting your season off on the right foot.
“We hit, we had pitching and we played good defense,” Clear Lake coach Zane Jensen said. “We had all three elements today. What else can you ask for?”
Clear Lake, 20-6 a year ago when then it won the North Central League I championship, is loaded again this year. In addition to returning its three top starters — Dillon Williams, Jordan Chana and Matt Heller — the Cardinals have added a southpaw, Brenden Coakley, to their pitching mix.
“I’ve never had more pitching and now we have a lefty,” Jensen said.
Williams worked six innings and combined with Tyler Krul on a six-hitter in game one while Chana went the distance and blanked the Panthers on two hits in game two. The Cardinals committed only one error behind their pitchers and pounded out 23 hits between the two games, including two home runs, one of them a tape-measure blast by catcher Cole Brodnansky in game two.
“We’re just trying to get better game in and game out,” Jensen said. “I’m happy with the way we played Saturday but we have an even tougher schedule this week.”
The Cardinals travel to Eureka on Friday to play St. Bernard, a regular in the Division V playoffs, before heading to Arcata on Saturday for a doubleheader against the Tigers, another postseason fixture.
“It will be a real test for us,” Jensen said.
Clear Lake’s first test, or first two given Saturday’s action was a doubleheader, saw the Cardinals ace both exams.
In the first game the Cardinals broke a 3-3 tie with two runs in the bottom of the fourth and then proceeded to put it away with a four-run fifth.
“Usually when you win the middle innings you win a lot of games,” Jensen said.
Clear Lake scored in every inning of the opener while pounding out 14 hits. Brodnansky led the way by going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Coakley doubled twice and knocked in a run. Jake Egger’s drag-bunt single keyed the two-run fourth that put the Cardinals ahead to stay.
“It was a beautiful bunt,” Jensen said.
Game two was scoreless until the Cardinals pushed ahead with a run in the bottom of the fourth. They came right back with five runs in the fifth, all scoring on home runs with no outs. Brodanansky drilled a belt-high fastball onto the hill just to the left of the solar panels in left-center field to open the scoring in the fifth.
“Cole got every bit of it, too,” Jensen said. “It was a bomb. When the ball left the infield you knew it was gone.”
Jensen said he can’t remember seeing a ball hit that far at Clear Lake’s field in the past.
Two batters later Williams slugged another home run to left field to make it 6-0.
Egger and Tyler Manning had two hits apiece for the Cardinals, who scored more than enough to make a winner of Chana, who struck out six and walked two. Williams struck out eight and walked one in the opener.
