Clear Lake will find out Sunday who it faces in playoff opener next week
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LAKEPORT >> Improving on last season’s finish in the North Central League I varsity baseball standings, the Clear Lake Cardinals locked up second place with a 17-1 victory over the Lower Lake Trojans on Friday afternoon in the five-inning league finale for both teams at Lakeport.
Clear Lake went 10-6 a year ago and advanced to the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs, losing to St. Vincent 9-3 in the opening round, but head coach Brian Horne said this year’s club is a much more finished product compared to the 2024 version.
“We’re hitting the ball, our pitchers are doing their job,” Horne said. “I think we’re more of a competitive team than we were a year ago.”
Added Horne, “Last year, our best pitcher, AJ (Bruch), was just a sophomore. Now we have AJ and Sawyer (Smith) and others.”
While the Cardinals were happy to reach the postseason a year ago, that’s not the case this time around.
“We want to make an impact,” Horne said. “I expect a couple of wins. We can go as far as these boys want to go.”
Clear Lake, 16-5 overall compared to 10-10 last year, finishes the season ranked No. 3 in North Coast Section Division 5. The seeding and at-large committee meeting Sunday could leave the Cardinals in Division 5 or move them up to Division 4 or even Division 3 under the competitive playoff format now in use.
“I think we’ll stay in Division 5,” Horne said. “Had we won the league, we might have gone up to 4, but we were second, so I think we’ll stay where we’re at.”
In their league finale against Lower Lake, the Cardinals continued to pound the ball, collecting 13 hits. Jesse Hayes went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and four stolen bases while Smith (2-for-2, two RBIs), Ryken Villanueva (2-for-3, triple, two RBIs) and Zane McAuley (2-for-3, double, RBI) provided some additional pop. Nolan Ewing (1-for-1) also drove in a run.
Smith pitched all five innings for the victory, allowing five hits while striking out eight and walking one.
Under first-year coach Mike Huffman, Lower Lake went 4-10 in league and 4-14 overall compared to 5-11 and 6-15 a year ago. While the numbers were about the same, Huffman said the team scored a couple of moral victories in that no player was dropped for grades during the season, which means the varsity didn’t have raid the junior varsity team for extra help, an all-to-common occurrence in past seasons.
The Trojans were playing Clear Lake for the second time in eight days after losing to them 15-0 in five innings a week earlier in Lower Lake.
“They smacked the (expletive) out of the ball,” Huffman said of the Cardinals. “The whole team hits well.”
Clear Lake chased Lower Lake starter Blake Hill with a seven-run first inning. Hill lasted just 2/3 of an inning, allowing all seven runs while striking out two and walking two.
Hill, Zach Jones, Eric Alonso, AJ Myer and Adrian Negrete all had hits for Lower Lake.
