Cards take the sixth in 5-1 victory

Another big sixth inning propels Clear Lake to quarterfinal-round win over No. 3 seed

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PLEASANT HILL >> Defendants can take the fifth, but the Clear Lake Cardinals are more than happy to take the sixth.

For the second playoff game in a row, Clear Lake rallied from a 1-0 deficit with a big top of the sixth inning, this time rallying for four runs in a 5-1 upset victory over No. 3 seed Berean Christian in the quarterfinals of the North Coast Section Division 4 baseball playoffs at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill.

And the win was bigger than you might think. Clear Lake (18-5) not only advances to the semifinals on Wednesday, but the Cardinals are now the highest-remaining seed left in the Division 4 field after both No. 1 Arroyo and No. 2 Head-Royce lost in the quarterfinals – Head-Royce 6-2 to the No. 7 American Canyon team that the Cardinals host Wednesday.

No. 8 Healdsburg hosts No. 13 Las Lomas in the other semifinal Wednesday.

Clear Lake is chasing its first sectional championship since head coach Jim Foley and the Cardinals did it back in 1998, and current head coach Brian Horne says there is nothing preventing his team from doing it.

“These boys are pretty hungry,” Horne said.

And nothing satisfies a playoff appetite better than strong pitching and timely hitting, something the Cardinals had plenty of this week, including an 8-1 win Tuesday against St. Helena when the Cardinals scored eight times in the top of the sixth after falling behind 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth.

Clear Lake found itself in the same situation Saturday on the road against Berean Christian. With starting pitcher AJ Bruch pitching a gem, the host Eagles finally broke through with a run in the bottom of the fifth to go up 1-0.

“They scored on a kind of a weird play,” Horne said.

A walk and a single put runners on first and second for the Eagles. A grounder led to a force play at third base but an overthrow at first allowed Berean Christian to get a run home.

Just as St. Helena found out Tuesday, Berean Christian’s 1-0 lead had a short shelf life.

“We made loud, hard contact the whole game,” Horne said of Clear Lake’s day at the plate. “We were ourselves from the very beginning, but nothing was happening.”

Until the top of the sixth.

Jesse Hayes singled up the middle with one out and Johnny Gonzales followed with a RBI triple down the line in right field. Bruch doubled home Gonzales moments later, also down the right-field line, to give himself and Clear Lake a 2-1 lead. Ryken Villanueva’s single made it 3-1, and after an infield singe by Zane McAuley, Jacob Horne singled into right-center field for a 4-1 lead.

The Cardinals added an insurance run in the seventh, singles by Ezekiel Lopez and Hayes setting up another Bruch RBI single.

Bruch capped the victory by throwing a scoreless seventh, retiring the final out as he went over the 110-pitch limit (he finished with 112).

“He had great command of the zone,” Horne said. “They’re a good hitting team, one of the top teams we’ve faced, but he kept them off balance.”

Bruch also escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the fourth, striking out back-to-back batters before getting an inning-ending groundout.

“That helped get the boys going,” Horne said.

Returning to Lakeport for the semifinals is the cherry on top for the Cardinals, who can remain at home for the championship game if they beat American Canyon on Wednesday.

“Now they have a chance to win it at home,” Horne said. “We’re pretty excited.”

PLAYOFF NOTES: The top five seeds in Division 4 are all gone. No. 1 Arroyo, No. 2 Head-Royce and No. 3 Berean Christian and No. 5 Moreau Catholic lost in Saturday’s quarterfinals while No. 4 Fort Bragg was eliminated in the first round … of the four semifinals, Clear Lake is a Division 5 team, Healdsburg is Division 4 and American Canyon and Las Lomas are Division 2 … Clear Lake has won three section titles in baseball, the first in 1983 and the last two in 1993 and 1998 (both under head coach Jim Foley). No other county school has more than one section title … Clear Lake’s 2015 team won its first 26 games before losing to Head-Royce 7-3 in the Division 5 finals … the NorCal Regional Championships are June 3 (first round), June 5 (semifinals) and June 7 (championship). Clear Lake could become the first Lake County school (baseball or softball) to qualify.