CLOVERDALE — Lilianna Cruz carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and a shutout into the seventh before the Fortuna Huskies rallied for a 5-2 win in the opening round of the Cloverdale Softball Tournament on Friday afternoon.
Clear Lake (1-1) plays two more games Saturday as the tournament wraps up. The Cardinals meet either Credo or St. Vincent at 9 a.m. in their first outing Saturday.
“The girls were playing marvelous defense,” Clear Lake head coach Scott Schaefers said. “That one inning took us out of things. It was just one of those games.”
Cruz didn’t allow a hit until the top of the sixth. Fortuna’s first two batters in the seventh reached on singles and were sacrificed into scoring position. A grounder to third base resulted in a force play at the plate as Camrin Pivniska fired a strike to catcher Hailee Bussard for the second out of the inning, leaving Fortuna with runners at the corners.
And that’s when the game began to slip away for Cruz and the Cardinals. Cruz walked Fortuna’s Nos. eight and nine hitters to force in a run. The next batter blooped in a single to put the Huskies ahead.
Cruz, who pitched a no-hitter in Clear Lake’s 10-0 season-opening win over Upper Lake on March 1, struck out six and walked three while allowing five hits.
“She was tiring going into the seventh,” Schaefers said of Cruz. “It just got away from us.”
Sierra Bruch went 2-for-3 for the Cardinals and Amber Smart went 2-for-2.
In other tournament action Friday:
Ukiah 12, Kelseyville 5
Trailing 5-1 at one point, Ukiah rallied to beat Kelseyville, scoring nine times in the bottom of the sixth to erase a 5-3 Knights lead.
Kelseyville was about to hit in the top of the seventh when the game ended because of a tournament time limit, which led to an argument between Kelseyville head coach Julie Jackson and the base umpire. Jackson said the Knights should have been allowed to complete the top of the seventh since the inning began before the time limit went into effect.
While arguing her case, Jackson said the umpire made contact with her on two separate occasions.
“I’ve never been disrespected like that in my life,” the Knights’ second-year coach said.
Kelseyville (0-3) scored twice in the top of the second to go ahead 2-1 and added three more runs in the third for a 5-1 lead. Ukiah closed to 5-3 with single runs in the third and fourth innings.
“We stopped doing the little things that counted and just fell apart,” Jackson said of Ukiah’s nine-run sixth inning. “We played very well until up to then. It was very frustrating.”
Taylor Hanson went 2-for-3 with two doubles and three RBIs for the Knights and Lilly Wiser went 2-for-3.
Losing pitcher Jayden Paulich went the distance, striking out six.
Kelseyville plays St. Bernard’s on Saturday at 11 a.m. as the tournament continues. If the Knights win, they’ll play again at 3 p.m. If they lose, they’ll play at 1 p.m.
Non-league
Upper Lake 31, Elsie Allen 4 (5 inn.)
At Santa Rosa, Upper Lake beat Elsie Allen in five innings to square its season record at 4-4.
Winning pitcher Naya Marcks had nine strikeouts and reliever Lexi Wurm had four strikeouts.
Zoey Petrie went 4-for-5 with three RBIs to lead the offense while Kiera McCormack went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Lexi Wurm went 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
Lower Lake 18, Technology 1 (5 inn.)
At Rohnert Park, Lower Lake beat Technology in non-league action. No other information was reported to the Record-Bee.
