LOWER LAKE >> It’s the ultimate road trip for the Lower Lake High School softball team, its season riding on the line come Friday when it travels all the way to Crescent City to play Del Norte High School at 5 p.m. in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs.
Lower Lake (17-7) is the No. 7 seed and third place team out of the North Central League I. The Trojans earned the right to travel five and a half hours north on Highway 101 after beating Swett High School 20-3 in a first-round game on Tuesday afternoon in Crockett, a road trip of a mere 80 miles and about two and a half hours.
Road warriors? The Trojans hope so. A victory over Del Norte (17-10), the No. 2 seed and runner-up in the Humboldt-Del Norte League behind champion and No. 1 seed Fortuna (23-1-1), would put Lower Lake into the semifinals next Tuesday or Wednesday against the winner of a Saturday quarterfinal-round game between Justin-Siena and Kelseyville (1 p.m. start at Kelseyville).
Lower Lake and Del Norte, a team the Trojans have never played, had no common opponents this season.
“I’ve never played anybody from that north area because of the long bus ride,” Lower Lake head coach Chris Emberson said. “But I think we have a good chance if we play our A game.”
Emberson was able to obtain a scouting report on the Warriors, who have been on a pretty good roll the last few seasons. They went 22-6 in 2015 and 19-7 last year. However, like the Trojans (18-7 in 2016 and 19-7 in 2015), regular-season success hasn’t translated into a deep playoff run, at least not yet. Neither one of these two teams made it out of the quarterfinal round the last two seasons, a streak that will end this year.
“We know their pitcher isn’t overpowering but she doesn’t walk many and she has a real good changeup,” Emberson said. “They (hitters) don’t have much power, but they have lots of speed and play small ball. They’ll bunt with their first five hitters and they’re a well-coached team.”
Lower Lake’s batters will get a heavy dose of changeups in practice the next couple of days courtesy of Emberson’s sister, Jen, a Lower Lake assistant coach who threw a rather nasty changeup during her pitching days at Middletown High School.
“It’s a good one,” Emberson said. “And we’ll also be working on our small-ball defense.”
While looking ahead in the playoffs is a practice most coaches discourage, Emberson said it would be a boon for Lake County softball should both Lower Lake and Kelseyville reach the semifinal round next week. Kelseyville, the NCL I champion, won both league meetings this season, 7-2 and 7-4.
“We were competitive in both games,” Emberson said.
Kelseyville and Justin-Siena (8-15) will know long before they play Saturday at 1 p.m. who their quarterfinal-round opponent is going to be – Lower Lake or Del Norte. It’s the second meeting this season between the Knights and the Braves of the Marin County Athletic League. Kelseyville won 6-4 on March 25 in Kelseyville. Likewise Lower Lake and Justin-Siena also played each other in the preseason, Justin-Siena winning 4-2.
