CLOVERDALE >> Teanne Edens shut down Lower Lake’s offense for the second time in as many meetings this season and the Cloverdale Eagles beat the Trojans 6-1 in North Central League I softball action on Tuesday afternoon in Cloverdale, eliminating Lower Lake from the league race.
Perhaps it was a bad omen for Lower Lake that the game started 47 minutes behind schedule because the umpires were late in arriving. Losing pitcher Shelbie Harris allowed single runs in the second and fourth innings, Edens helped her own cause with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth. The Eagles struck for four more runs in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
“The bottom line is didn’t put the ball into play and put pressure on their defense,” Lower Lake coach Chris Emberson said. “You have to give her (Edens) props. We’ve faced her twice this season and gotten only three hits.”
Two of those three hits came on Tuesday, both in the seventh inning as Edens had a no-hitter working through six. Ashlynn Mock, Lake County’s hits leader, led off the top of the seventh with a single and eventually scored from third base on Destiny Apodaca’s two-out single.
Lower Lake appeared as though it would take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Emma Diener led off the game with a walk and Harris sacrificed her to second. Mock followed by hitting a hard line drive that was headed into right field for a run-scoring single until Cloverdale’s second baseman made a leaping catch. Worse yet, she doubled Diener off second base.
“I thought it was a hit for sure, I think everyone else did, too,” Emberson said. “The girl made a really nice play.”
Lower Lake also put two runners aboard with one out in the third courtesy of a Cloverdale error and a hit batsman, but Edens worked out of the mini-jam.
A senior-dominated squad, the Trojans (9-3 league, 17-5 overall) were hoping this would be their year to break through against the two teams — Cloverdale and Clear Lake — that have had a stranglehold on the league’s top spot for more than a decade. But while the Trojans have been able to manufacture plenty of offense against other league opponents, they’ve scored just three total runs in two losses to Cloverdale (11-1) and another to Clear Lake (12-1), the team they play on Friday in Lakeport.
“It’s frustrating and the girls are disappointed,” Emberson said. “We had a chance to win a title going into the final week. There were a lot of tears after the game.”
The Trojans can still play spoiler in regard to Clear Lake since a win on Friday would most likely knock the Cardinals out of title contention. Cloverdale still has games remaining against Willits (0-11) and Middletown (6-7).
“We would love to be the spoilers … I haven’t beaten Clear Lake since I’ve been coach and I don’t know how long it’s been since Lower Lake has done it,” Emberson said. “Another win might give us a better seeding for the playoffs. I know the girls will be up for it.”
Edens struck out eight and walked one while Harris finished with three strikeouts and one walk.
After the Clear Lake game on Friday, the Trojans close out their league and regular-season schedule next Tuesday at Fort Bragg.
Notes: The last time Lower Lake beat Clear Lake in softball was April 27, 1993, at Lower Lake. The Trojans won 11-4 under former coach Herm Tappin. It was coach Gary Pickle’s first season at Clear Lake. He’s now in his 23rd season.
