UKIAH >> The game started out well enough as the Clear Lake Cardinals scored three runs in the top of the first inning on Tuesday afternoon against the Ukiah Wildcats in Ukiah.
Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle only wishes he could fast-forward the game from there. Ukiah roared back to hand the Cardinals one of their worst losses in years, 13-3 in six innings. The last time Clear Lake was 10-runned by any opponent — non-league or league — was 17-0 by Montgomery High School of Santa Rosa in 2009.
“We didn’t pitch well and we didn’t play well on defense. Even though we had only three errors, there were a lot of balls we should have made plays on and didn’t,” Pickle said.
Clear Lake (1-2) spent the entire game in trouble. While Ukiah didn’t score in the bottom of the first against losing pitcher Rachel Wingler, the Wildcats did load the bases. Wingler wasn’t as fortunate the remainder of the game. Ukiah scored five times in the second, twice in the third, once in the fourth, four times in the fifth and again in the sixth to end the game after 5 1/3 innings.
“We were in trouble the whole way,” Pickle said.
Wingler allowed 18 hits, 11 earned runs, struck out three and walked four.
Emily Psalmonds went 2-for-3 with a double and RBI for the Cardinals, who had only four hits. Hannah Norwood added a double and Destinee Garcia singled.
Clear Lake will try and snap a two-game losing streak Thursday in Santa Rosa against Piner High School at 4 p.m.
