SAN FRANCISCO >> The Clear Lake High School softball team spent Wednesday sightseeing in the City by the Bay, though the view from Moscone Field No. 3 became a tad stale after circling the bases so many times in the first inning.
Clear Lake sent 18 batters to the plate in the first and scored 12 times en route to a 20-0 five-inning victory over the University Red Devils in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division V playoffs, a lopsided win that sets the stage for the Cardinals’ trip to Cloverdale on Saturday at 4 p.m. for a quarterfinal-round game with the third-seeded Eagles (18-4).
No. 6 seed Clear Lake (13-11) guaranteed itself a 24th consecutive winning season with its dismantling of University and now faces a tougher task in a Cloverdale team that beat Clear Lake twice during North Central League I play – 8-1 in Lakeport in the first meeting on April 18 and 8-7 in eight innings in the second meeting May 4 in Cloverdale, a game the Cardinals had every opportunity to win.
“We wanted to get one more shot at them and we earned the right with the way we played today,” Clear Lake coach Doug Wingler said after the Cardinals unleashed a 17-hit attack against the Red Devils. “We’re going to go back down there and see what we can do.”
There were no shortage of highlights for the Cardinals against University, beginning with the no-hitter thrown by winning pitcher Kortnie Reynolds, who also went 3-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs. Her battery mate, catcher Regina Faalelela, had a day to remember as well, going 4-for-4 with a double, grand slam and seven RBIs.
“The longest ball I’ve ever seen hit,” Wingler said of Faalelela’s first-inning blast.
Shaelyn McIntire, Shyanne Chapin, Sydney Lawler and Sara Ogden added two hits apiece – and in McIntire’s and Ogden’s case, three RBIs each.
“We definitely overwhelmed them,” Wingler said of the Red Devils.
