LAKEPORT >> Eureka High School traveled to Lakeport on Wednesday afternoon to play Lower Lake and Clear Lake in a split softball doubleheader and the Loggers certainly didn’t mess around with their Lake County opponents.
After blanking Lower Lake on three hits in a 10-0 victory in the first game, Eureka defeated Clear Lake 6-0 in game two behind the stellar pitching of ace Alyssa Jimenez, who struck out the first 10 batters she faced until freshman Joy Ingalls ended the string with a popup to third base in the bottom of the fourth.
“She carried a perfect game into the seventh inning,” Clear Lake coach Doug Wingler said of a pitcher the Cardinals (11-5) ran into and beat two years ago in the Ukiah Tournament. “She’s one of the best pitchers we’ve seen for awhile. After going through the lineup against her the first time I thought we might get her timing down, but we didn’t make the adjustments we needed to make.”
Jimenez was two outs away from a perfect game when Ingalls, the No. 2 hitter in Clear Lake’s batting order, reached on an infield single to shortstop. She advanced to second on an error on the play and made it to third base two batters later when Madi Ferguson singled for the Cardinals’ only other hit.
“She was very good at hitting her spots,” Wingler said of Jimenez. “She wasn’t overpowering speed-wise, but she had a really good riseball and could throw it on just about any count. We chased a lot of balls out of the zone.”
Losing pitcher Shaelyn McIntire, the author of a no-hitter on Tuesday during Clear Lake’s league win over Willits at Lakeport, turned in a solid effort as well. While she allowed 10 hits, only three of the runs she surrendered were earned, the result of six Clear Lake errors. McIntire struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter.
“There were no walks in the game,” Wingler said. “How amazing is that?”
The same teams and pitchers could meet again later this month in the Ukiah Tournament, which was rescheduled from early April when it was rained out.
Eureka is 7-8 overall.
Clear Lake resumes its North Central League I schedule Friday in St. Helena at 4 p.m.
Eureka 10, Lower Lake 0
At Lakeport, playing their sixth game in six days, the Lower Lake Trojans (10-9) started backup pitcher Kalysta Howard and she worked all five innings, allowing 15 hits with no strikeouts and two walks.
“We’re kind of beat up right now,” Lower Lake coach Chris Emberson said. “We played a lot of subs today. I got all but one of my players into the game.”
Eureka posted four-run innings in the second and third to go up 8-0. The Loggers added two more runs in the top of the fifth and the game was stopped because of the 10-run mercy rule after the Trojans failed to score in the bottom of the fifth.
Lower Lake had only three hits, singles by Kayla Sanderson, Kayla Doud and Jackie Cooper. Sanderson and Doud singled back to back in the bottom of the fourth, the only scoring threat for the Trojans.
Lower Lake returns home Friday to play Middletown in a North Central League I game at 4 p.m.
