LAKEPORT >> Trailing 2-1 going to the bottom of the third inning on Friday afternoon in Lakeport, the Clear Lake Cardinals flipped the switch into the “on” position.
Perfectly placed bunt singles up the third base line by Jared Strate and Jake Egger to open the third ignited a seven-run rally and the Cardinals went on to beat the Willits Wolverines 10-3 in varsity baseball action.
“Those bunts got us going,” Clear Lake coach Zane Jensen said.
Cole Brodnansky followed with a RBI single to knot the score at 2-2 and Dillon Williams’ two-run double put the Cardinals, now 2-0 in the North Central League I standings and 8-0 overall, ahead to stay. Matt Heller and winning pitcher Brandon Coakley also contributed RBI singles during the uprising.
Coakley worked the first four innings for the victory, allowing all three Willits runs on six hits. He struck out five and walked one. Heller finished up with three innings of one-hit shutout ball while striking out four and walking one.
Willits (0-1) scored single runs in the first and third innings to go up 2-1.
“Nobody is going to roll over for us,” Jensen said. “They’re going to challenge us every game. They (Wolverines) challenged us all game.”
Strate, Egger, Williams and Heller all finished with two hits apiece. Egger and Williams also had two RBIs each.
“We played a little shaky on defense, but our pitching was good enough and that big inning was enough,” Jensen said.
Clear Lake is home Tuesday to play Lower Lake at 4 p.m.
