LAKEPORT >> Just a week ago Aliza Atkins graduated from Clear Lake High School, diploma in hand. Late Friday afternoon she graduated again, this time with the highest of softball honors and a section pennant draped over her shoulder.
Atkins’ three-run blast — her only hit of the 2015 North Coast Section playoffs — proved to be the decisive blow as the Cardinals played power ball to beat the St. Joseph Notre Dame Pilots 5-1 in the Division V championship game at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport.
Atkins’ three-run line drive, a shot down the left-field line, carried over the fence with two outs in the bottom of the third inning to give the Cardinals (20-6) a 4-0 lead.
“I moved back in the box, I saw some spin (on the ball) and just hit it. It felt effortless,” Atkins said of the 0-2 offering from losing pitcher Anekaila Crevani. “Right off the bat I knew it was gone.”
Atkins was running hard down the first-base line and didn’t actually see the ball disappear over the fence, but she knew it was a home run.
“I saw Doug (Winger, the first-base coach), jumping up and down,” she said.
Atkins and Clear Lake coach Gary Pickle had a brief conference halfway between the third-base coaching box and homeplate after Atkins fell behind in the count 0-2.
“I told her not to worry about spin. Hit the ball dead center,” Pickle said.
Atkins fouled off a pitch before clubbing her home run, which capped a rally that began with the bases empty and two outs. After Crevani struck out the first two batters she faced, Emily Omiotek (2-for-3) reached on an infield single to shortstop and Alicia Ledesma singled to left field, setting the stage for Atkins.
Until then, it looked like winning pitcher Rachel Wingler’s one-out home run in the bottom of the second, a ball struck deep over the fence in left-center field, might be enough to win it giving the way Wingler was dealing. The junior retired 10 straight after surrendering a solid single to Sarah Mahler to open the game. Wingler didn’t run into any trouble until the top of the fifth when the Pilots (12-11) put runners at second and third on the strength of back-to-back one-out singles by Dalia Quesada and Grace Oransky. A stolen base put runners at second and third before Wingler struck out Lea Akima and got Mahler to pop out to third base to end the inning.
Getting tough outs proved to be Wingler’s forte during the 2015 postseason. It wasn’t always that way during the regular season, according to Pickle.
“Rachel and I had a moment during the season where I explained what I expected from her,” Pickle said of an early April meeting with his pitcher following a sloppy home win over Kelseyville. “She responded and never looked back.”
To the Pilots’ credit, they didn’t go down quietly. St. Joseph Notre Dame put runners at second and third with two outs in the sixth before Wingler struck out Gina Bonardi.
It was more of the same in the seventh when the Pilots finally broke through. With the bases empty and two outs, Akima blooped a single into shallow left field, barely beyond the reach of shortstop Atkins, and Mahler doubled her home. When Olivia Ballesteros reached on infield error, Clear Lake’s lone miscue of the game, the Pilots suddenly had runners at the corners and the dangerous Crevani (with six home runs on the season) waiting her turn in the on-deck circle.
Fortunately for the Cardinals, Wingler made sure Crevani didn’t get another at-bat. Tyesen Gordon, already 2-for-3 on the day, worked the count full before swinging and missing at low fastball for the final out of the game. Wingler’s seventh strikeout sealed Clear Lake’s third section title in 15 years but its first since the 2007 team went 27-0.
“The last out is always the toughest one to get,” Pickle said. “You know it’s almost over and you start to press a little bit.”
“I had confidence,” Wingler said of her complete-game seven-hitter and 20th win of the season. “Gary told me what I needed to do and I just felt relaxed out there.”
On the home run in the bottom of the second, her second of the season, Wingler said she wasn’t sitting on any particular pitch. In fact, her main focus was something entirely different.
“I was making it a point to be calm in the box and wait for the ball,” Wingler said.
Once she hit it, Wingler said it was pretty clear the ball was gone.
“Yeah, it was real squishy,” she said.
The hit was Wingler’s ninth in three playoff games. She went 9-for-11 in the postseason with two doubles, the home run and eight RBIs.
“We caught fire at the right time,” Pickle said of his offense. “We weren’t a very good hitting team until the end.”
And the sudden power surge?
Pickle said he was surprised as anyone.
“We came here today thinking we would have to beat them with our short game,” he said.
Clear Lake also won section titles in 2002 and 2007 under Pickle, who has won more than 400 games during his career with the Cardinals, which began in 1993.
“We had a group of good athletes who came together at the right time,” Pickle said. “Of all the teams I’ve coached, this team has come the farthest in terms of peaking at the right time,” he added.
Clear Lake opened the season 4-5 but won 16 of its final 17 to finish 20-6. Along with the section championship pennant they’ll now hang from the gym’s rafter, the Cardinals also secured a league pennant as North Central League I co-champs along with Cloverdale.
While Pickle said he has spent many sleepless night pouring over what went wrong in past season-ending playoff defeats, he won’t have that problem this time. Oh, he may not sleep much, but it will be for all the right reasons this time around.
“These (section championships) don’t happen very often,” Pickle said. “You have to enjoy them when they do. I’m going to enjoy it, but I probably won’t sleep tonight either.”
Game notes: The Cardinals picked up a gift run in the bottom of the fourth when a throwing error with two outs brought home Destinee Garcia from third base to make it 5-0. Garcia doubled with one out and moved to third on a bunt by Mina Werner … The five runs scored by Clear Lake is as many as they scored in their first four section title game appearances (2001, 2002, 2007 and 2009) combined … Pickle is now 3-2 in section championship games … Although Hannah Norwood couldn’t suit up for the game or sit in the dugout following her ejection in a 14-4 win over St. Vincent on Tuesday in the semifinals, she donned her jersey and took part in the postgame awards ceremony. Shyanne Chapin started in Norwood’s place in center field and played flawless defense, catching two flyballs and one line drive, and nearly catching another … Both teams finished with seven hits while losing pitcher Crevani struck out nine, including the side in the fateful third inning.
