LAKEPORT >> In a long-standing series where the first team that flinches usually loses, add a new ending and a pretty incredible one at that to the twice-a-year Clear Lake vs. Cloverdale softball rivalry.
Clear Lake stunned Cloverdale 2-1 on Friday afternoon in Lakeport, erasing the Eagles’ considerable momentum and 1-0 lead in the course of two batters in the bottom of the sixth inning. The improbable rally against Cloverdale ace Teanne Edens, who had allowed just two hits and struck out 12 through 5 1/3 innings, gives Clear Lake (8-0 league, 13-4 overall) a two-game edge in the loss column over both Cloverdale (8-2) and Lower Lake (7-2) in the North Central League I standings. Cloverdale has no games remaining against either team while Clear Lake and Lower Lake still have to play twice.
You couldn’t blame first-year Clear Lake coach Doug Wingler for being caught up in the drama and the excitement of what transpired in the blink of an eye, a rapid-fire series of events that brought Clear Lake fans to their feet and left a vocal Eagles contingent speechless.
“We talk about playing 42 outs and sometimes you just gotta keep grinding,” Wingler said. “This is a great team win.”
Clear Lake knocked Edens out of an April 12 game in Cloverdale in the early innings and went on to post a 7-1 victory. Twenty-four days later Edens appeared to be on a mission of sorts as she retired the Cardinals in order in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings, striking out the side in the the first and fifth. Entering the fateful sixth inning, she had allowed just two batters over the minimum, the result of back-to-back two-out singes by Emily Omiotek and Mina Werner in the bottom of the third.
The bottom of the sixth opened with Omiotek, the No. 9 hitter for the Cardinals, battling Edens through a number of two-strike foul balls. While Edens eventually won the battle with her 12th and final strikeout of the game, things were about to change … suddenly and dramatically.
Werner, one of two slappers at the top of Clear Lake’s batting order, legged out an infield single. With Shyanne Chapin at the plate, a wild pitch sent Werner to second and she continued on to third on a throwing error by catcher Jordyn Turner.
After a Cloverdale meeting at the mound to discuss strategy, here’s what happened, and it was anything but ordinary.
Chapin slapped a ball that bounced out in front of the plate and up the third-base line. A hard-charging Cloverdale third baseman Nicky Martinez couldn’t come up with the ball cleanly and her throw home was too late to get the lightning-quick Werner, who scored the tying run.
Then things got crazy.
With Cloverdale’s infield crashing in on Chapin’s slap hit, no one covered second and Chapin smartly moved up a base. When Jordyn Turner realized Chapin was headed to second, she threw the ball to the bag, but with no one there to take the throw it skipped into center field where Amber Adams couldn’t come up with it cleanly. Chapin simply kept running the whole time and circled the bases to score what proved to be the winning run.
“The slappers carried us through the first game against them and they got us through today,” Wingler said of Werner and Chapin.
Cloverdale still had one at-bat remaining and Edens, who had singled in each of her first two trips to the plate against Rachel Wingler, was leading off the seventh. Edens hit a soft line drive that first baseman Kortnie Reynolds gloved for the out, and there was an audible sigh of relief from the Clear Lake dugout. Wingler struck out the next batter and induced a flyball to right field to end the game as the Cardinals stormed the field to celebrate.
“They’re battle tested,” Wingler said of his veteran squad, many of whom starred for the Cardinals a year ago when they shared the NCL I title with Cloverdale and went on to win the North Coast Section Division V championship.
“We didn’t want to let Turner, (Bailey) Creager and Edens beat us and I thought we did a pretty good job of that,” Winger said of the Nos. 3-5 batters in the Cloverdale lineup, who were a combined 2-for-8 (and Edens had the two hits, both well-struck singles).
Rachel Wingler allowed just three hits overall, one less than Edens, struck out four and walked just one. She was charged with one run, which was unearned.
Both pitchers benefited from a liberal strike zone.
“He was calling it both ways, so you can’t complain about that,” Doug Wingler said.
Cloverdale took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Edens singled with one out, moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt and came around to score on a soft line drive by Xochilth Saldana that second baseman Emily Psalmonds appeared to have in her glove before it popped out and continued into shallow right-center field.
Clear Lake travels to Lower Lake on Tuesday and to Fort Bragg next Friday. The Cardinals play four games the final week of the regular season – single games against Kelseyville and Lower Lake and a doubleheader against St. Helena.
