LAKEPORT >> Zane Jensen, a teacher of history at Terrace Middle School, is as of this baseball season also a maker of history.
Jensen, who doubles as the coach of the Clear Lake High School varsity baseball team, has been the man in the driver’s seat during the Cardinals’ undefeated regular season — 24-0 overall and 14-0 in the North Central League I standings as of Tuesday following a decisive 12-3 win at Middletown.
Now an even bigger accomplishment awaits. If the Cardinals can run through the North Coast Section Division V playoffs, which begin next week, the same way they ran the table during the regular season, they will join an elite group of county sports teams to finish with a perfect record.
Clear Lake’s softball team did it in 2007, going 27-0, and Middletown’s football team did it in 2001, going 12-0. Upper Lake’s 1993-94 girls’ basketball team came close, winning its first 29 games before finally losing in the NorCal playoffs, a level of competition that doesn’t yet exist in baseball or softball.
“Yeah, we’ve had a great season, but the whole undefeated thing has been a by-product of what I’m trying to accomplish as a coach,” Jensen said.
“My goal … and I’ve told my guys … is to get them to the next level. I want tosee them have the same opportunities that I did and play college baseball.”
Jensen, 32, was an outfielder for Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after starring at Clear Lake High School and Mendocino College in Ukiah. He also played for Masters College in Los Angeles.
He is finishing his fourth year as head coach at Clear Lake and his track record thus far has been impressive — 12-11 in 2011 (playoff qualifier), 14-11 in 2012 (playoff qualifier), 20-6 in 2013 (league champion) and 24-0 so far in 2014 (league champion). He is a leader who wants to be on top of every development on the diamond and has been befriended — some would say mentored — by Kelseyville’s longtime veteran baseball coach Lou Poloni.
“We’ve talked about a lot of stuff,” Poloni said. “I don’t know if that would make me his mentor. He’s been there (at Clear Lake) for a while, does a great job and is a very good coach. I think he’s done a really good job with his team.”
There are baseball teams that prevail because of airtight pitching. Still others succeed on the basis of steady defense, opportunistic hitting or simply by outsmarting their opponents. But rare indeed is the team that employs all of those things and comes out on top as consistently as Clear Lake has this season. The road the Cardinals took to a perfect season had some roadblocks. Four of their 25 wins were by one run, including an extra-inning game against Cloverdale.
“The closest call we had was in the Fort Bragg Tournament against St. Vincent de Paul,” Jensen said of a game the Cardinals won 8-7 after scoring four times in the top of the seventh to erase a 7-4 deficit.
“We were down by three runs when we got to the top of the seventh and came back and won. Cole Brodnansky hit a home run to make it a two-run game. We tied it up with three swings (the home run and two doubles). It was one of the craziest games that I’ve ever been a part of and we came out on the winning side. One thing about this team — it’s very resilient. They’ve been through the ropes.”
Clear Lake’s other close calls were a 3-2 league win in eight innings over Cloverdale, a 4-3 non-league victory over St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo, a 12-11 league win against Middletown, and an 8-4 victory over St. Bernard of Eureka, also at the Fort Bragg Tournament. Clear Lake trailed 4-3 going to the seventh inning and scored five times to stun the Crusaders.
“We found different ways to win,” Jensen acknowledged. “We’ve had games in which we didn’t hit well, but we pitched better and played better defense.
Pitching figured to be — and has been — the foundation of the Cards’ success this season. They have ben carried aloft by three seniors who are a combined 19-0 with four saves. Jordan Chana leads the staff at 9-0, Dillon Williams is 6-0 with one save, and Matt Heller is 4-0 with three saves. Throw in a junior left-hander in Brandon Coakley, who is 4-0, and a coach, especially one at a public school, really couldn’t ask for much more.
“We’ve been fortunate,” Jensen said. “We have guys who haven’t gotten a lot of playing time who could be starting for other teams.”
Added Jensen, “Our defense can be up and down, but as long as you continue to work at it and practice real hard as these guys have done it’s been good. We’ve made the plays when we’ve had to.
“Why I think we have excelled on defense is there’s one thing about playing defense when there’s no pressure and playing when you do have pressure. In practice we try to put pressure on all the time,” Jensen said.
The pressure comes in the form of extra running after practice when there are errors.
The greatest advantage Clear Lake has had this season is the familiarity between players and the players with Jensen.
“It’s a huge advantage,” he said. “Several have been with me for three years, some even four. I know these guys, I know what their grades are. We do a weekly grade check so I can check on them all the time. I hear from their teachers. So I know what’s going on.”
Jensen adheres to a belief that games are not won or lost on game day, but in preparation and practice. But he also subscribes to the theory that while being a disciplined sport baseball should be fun.
“As a coach, how you deal with a 17-, 18-year-old boy is to balance keeping it fun while keeping it focused and determined,” Jensen said. “With baseball you don’t just show up. You just can’t be an athlete and play baseball … you have to work at it, it’s a skill, it’s a test not only of running, but a test of investment. Baseball’s a game of life because you have to learn to deal with failure and you fail a lot in baseball.”
Does Jensen believe his Cardinals deserve a special niche in history?
“I don’t know if players deserve things,” Jensen answered. “I think that the reason this team is where it’s at is because they go to open fields in November and December when it’s raining and they go in the summertime when it’s like 119 degrees.
“These guys have worked hard to get to this spot.”
