ST. HELENA >> The Clear Lake Cardinals may not have brought their “A” game to the Napa Valley on Thursday afternoon against the St. Helena Saints, but they still found a way to win.
“That’s supposed to be the sign of a good team, right?” Clear Lake coach Zane Jensen said after watching his undefeated squad score three times in the top of the seventh in a 6-2 North Central League I victory at Veterans Memorial Park in Yountville.
“We found a way to win it, but there was a point in the game where it really could have gone either way,” Jensen said as the Cardinals improved to 4-0 in league play and 10-0 overall.
Both teams scored a run in the first inning. Clear Lake pushed ahead 3-1 in the top of the fifth only to watch St. Helena close to 3-2 in the bottom half of the inning.
The Cardinals finally gained some breathing room in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs on singles by Cole Brodnansky (2-for-3) and Dillon Williams (2-for-3) and an intentional walk to Matt Heller (2-for-3, 2 RBIs). Brandon Coakley (2-for-4) followed with a RBI single to make it 4-2, Tyler Manning grounded out to bring in another run, and a St. Helena error produced the final run of the inning.
Starting and winning pitcher Jordan Chana worked the first four innings, allowing five of St. Helena’s six hits and one run. He struck out four and walked two.
“He threw 25 pitches in the first inning and was in the high 80s after four innings,” Jensen said. “He didn’t have his best stuff today.”
Clear Lake’s defense, which committed three errors, didn’t help out their starter much, according to Jensen.
“We made a bunch of errors that made his pitch count go up,” Jensen said.
Heller relieved and pitched the final three innings for the save, allowing one run on one hit, striking out two and walking one.
“His tempo was awesome,” Jensen said of Heller. “He gets the ball back from Cole (the Clear Lake catcher) and is ready to throw again.”
John Vertrees had the only extra-base hit, a double, among Clear Lake’s 11 hits overall.
The Cardinals don’t play again until a week from today when they open up in the Fort Bragg Tournament. Their next league game isn’t until April 14 at home against Fort Bragg.
