LAKEPORT >> Thanks to some sound mental gamesmanship by their coach coach, Zane Jensen, the Clear Lake Cardinals got off to a running start in the first round of the North Coast Section Division V baseball tournament on their home field Tuesday.
The Cards made it look easy in an 11-1 five-inning win over Bay School of San Francisco’s Breakers as they continued to fly higher than any Lake County high school team ever has.
The victory kept alive an amazing 25-game winning streak for the undefeated Cardinals. At least part of that victory can be attributed to, as Jensen described it, “reading a ball in the dirt.”
Essentially, the tactic capitalizes the vulnerabilities of opposing catchers by taking advantage of their many responsibilities.
“It’s very hard for a catcher to block the ball and then pick it up and throw you out,” Jensen said.
“We’ve worked on reading a ball in the dirt a lot,” he added. “I don’t know how many times we had runners on first today who read a ball in the dirt and stole second. It’s hard for even a major league catcher to block (a ball) and then throw you out.”
For the record, the 11th run for the Cardinals, which put them up by 10 and spelled the end for Bay School as the 10-run rule came into play, was scored by Jared Strate in a cloud of dust.
Even bigger for Clear Lake, though, was a two-run, first-inning home run by catcher Cole Brodnansky, which sparked a six-run rally that featured seven hits — two doubles, four singles and the Brodnansky blast over the 325-foot divider in left field. Brodnansky was only the third Cardinal to the plate in the game and hammered the second pitch he saw from Breaker pitcher Nick Quazzo.
It was Brodnansky’s fourth home run, which is more than any other Lake County player has hit this season.
“That two-run homer set the tone for us,” said Jensen.
But even bigger than that was Jordan Chana’s route-going 10th victory against no defeats. Not only is Chana’s 10-0 record by far the best for a Lake County pitcher this season, but, historically, any season in terms of winning percentage.
Chana aided his own cause by banging a three-run double in the six-run first. In between Brodnansky’s two-run home and Chana’s bases-clearing double was Tyler Manning’s RBI single.
“We played well,” said Jensen. “I felt like we did a very good job at the plate.”
Clear Lake banged out 13 hits. Jake Egger acquired three-quarters of the cycle with a single, double and triple while scoring twice and driving in a run. Brodnansky, Dillon Williams and John Vertrees added two hits apiece — both of Williams’ hit were doubles — and Chana finished the day with four RBIs overall. The Cardinals had eight extra-base hits overall, including a double by Brendan Coakley.
Chana struck out seven and walked only one while scattering three hits. He was nicked for a run in the top of the second but nothing more.
“Guys were behind his fastball all day,” Jensen said.
The Cardinals will play Marin Academy or Stuart Hall, who meet today, at home on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the quarterfinal round.
Asked about his comfort level after the win on Tuesday, Jensen observed: “I like being the home team.”
Clear Lake notes: Chana is the first Lake County pitcher to reach double-digit wins since Jack Ell of Upper Lake (10-4) in 2000 … The single-season wins leader is Kelseyville’s Gary Burns, who went 12-2 in 1988 … Anthony Call of Upper Lake went 10-1 in 1987, Jason Templeton of Kelseyville went 10-2 in 1999, and Aaron Pickle of Clear Lake went 10-3 in 1993 … The last Clear Lake pitcher to win as many as nine games in a season was Bryan Edwards (9-2) in 2010.
