LAKEPORT >>The Clear Lake Cardinals struggled during the early part of their 2015 schedule, so much so that veteran coach Gary Pickle wondered whether or not his team could compete for a league championship let alone a section title.
But after opening 4-5 and surviving a handful of shaky outings, including a 13-3 pasting at the hands of the Ukiah Wildcats in the Ukiah Tournament as well as irritating one-run defeats to non-leauge opponents Casa Grande and Sonoma Valley, Clear Lake has won 15 of its last 16. The lone loss was a 4-3 setback to Cloverdale in a North Central League I tiebreaker game after the Cardinals and Eagles finished tied in the final league standings at 13-1.
“There was a point early on when I was hoping we would make .500 … seriously,” Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle said. “You could just tell we weren’t hitting on all cylinders. I gave them the whole week off for spring break, something I don’t usually do, and told them to clear their heads.”
While the time off seemd to help, it didn’t completely cure the team’s up-and-down play. Even while winning 13 straight in NCL I play following a league-opening 2-0 loss at Cloverdale, the Cardinals struggled at times with all elements of their game — pitching, defense and hitting.
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride … there have been some bumps,” Pickle said.
The Cardinals did learn from their mistakes and improve, according to Pickle, so much so that they will be playing St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda today at 5 p.m. in the North Coast Section Division V championship game at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport, where the Cardinals are 10-1 this season. An 11th home win will deliver the school’s third section pennant since Pickle took over the program in 1993.
It’s a classic battle of top seeds with No. 1 Clear Lake entering play at 19-6 and No. 2 St. Joseph, a battle-tested team out of the Tri-Counties Athletic League, bringing in a deceiving 12-10 mark.
“You can’t go by reocrd,” Pickle said. “They play in a big(-school) league and get beat up by some higher division schools.”
This is the fifth time the Cardinals have appeared in a section championship game under Pickle’s leadership but the first time they’ve played one on their own field. They lost 4-0 in the Class A final in 2001 at Ukiah to a Salesian squad from Richmond that featured the daughter of former St. Louis Cardinals great Willie McGee, who attended the game; they came back the very next year, also in Ukiah, to defeat Holy Names of Oakland 2-1 in a nine-inning classic where the winning run scored on a strike-three wild pitch.
Five years later the 2007 Clear Lake squad rolled to a 27-0 record behind ace pitcher Brittany Rumfelt and sophomore second baseman Kaila Sterbank, capping its undefeated season with a 2-1 victory on St. Patrick/St. Vincent’s home field in Vallejo; and two years later the same two teams met again, also in Vallejo, this time with the Bruins claiming a 2-1 win over the Sterbank-led Cardinals in the first Division IV championship ever held (the Division I-VI playoff format came on line in 2009).
This is the first time Clear Lake has appeared in the Division V finals. St. Joseph Notre Dame is trying for its first section title in softball.
During the regular season the schools had only one common opponent, St. Vincent of Petaluma, the team Clear Lake just beat 14-4 in six innings on Tuesday in the semifinals. St. Joseph Notre Dame also beat those same Mustangs 11-5 in non-league action in late March. The Pilots also lost two close games with St. Mary’s of Berkeley, 4-0 and 4-2 in eight innings. St. Mary’s fell 5-3 to Lower Lake in the opening round of the Division IV playoffs.
St. Josesph Notre Dame played a predominantly Division IV schedule in its league, including two losses to Salesian, which wasn’t a playoff team in Division IV this year, and two others to St. Patrick/St. Vincent, which lost to Fortuna in the Division IV semifinals on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be a dogfight,” Pickle said. “They’re the No. 2 seed for a reason.”
Clear Lake will have to shake up its lineup today owing to the ejection of senior Hannah Norwood in the St. Vincent game. Norwood, the team’s veteran center fielder and leadoff hitter, was tossed in the bottom of the third inning during a home plate collision with Mustangs catcher Mary Cerf. Replacing Norwood in center field and the leadoff spot in the batting order will most likely be Shyanne Chapin, who usually starts in right field and bats second. Moving to right field and the No. 2 spot in the order will be Emily Omiotek.
Omiotek started in right field in place of Chapin, who was ill, against St. Vincent and went 3-for-4 with a double and a RBI. Late-inning recplacement Lila Ogden also did a solid job, coming in to play left field and going 2-for-2 with three RBIs, including a run-scoring single that ignited a five-run fifth inning that finally put what had been a close game out of reach.
“My bench has been doing a really good job all year,” Pickle said. “Maddie West had a key double in one of our wins over Lower Lake and Crystal (Zepeda) has done a good job.”
Pickle said he has never lost a player to ejection in any type of softball or baseball game during his long coaching career at Clear Lake and prior to that as the longtime head coach of the Lange Brothers Little League squad.
“Both the Pilots and Cardinals have piled up some big offensive numbers in the playoffs after receiving first-round byes. St. Joseph Notre Dame flattened No. 10 seed Head-Royce 10-0 in five innings in the quarterfinals, then came back to 10-run No. 3 seed St. Bernard of Eureka 14-4 in five innings in the semifinals.
Clear Lake routed Valley Christian of Dublin 18-0 in five innings in the quarterfinals before knocking off No. 5 seed St. Vincent in the semifinals.
Cardinals staff ace Rachel Wingler is 7-for-8 in her first two games with two doubles and seven RBIs. Other hot bats belong to Alicia Ledesma (4-for-6, double, eight RBIs) and Destinee Garcia (5-for-8, double, three RBIs).
Not a big numbers guy, Pickle is only concerned with one stat going into today’s championship game; the final score. He just wants to finish with one more run than the opposition, the same as in 2002 and 2007.
“There are no more games to qualify for,” Pickle said. “This is it, now we just have to play. You just hope you play your best game in your final game.”
