Clear Lake rallies with five runs in sixth to beat American Canyon 11-9 in semifinals
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKEPORT >> There is indeed something magical about the sixth inning for Clear Lake’s baseball team, but magic isn’t the reason the Cardinals will be hosting Las Lomas in the North Coast Section Division 4 championship game Saturday at 2 p.m.
They’re just good. Really good.
“You’re just confident in what these boys can do,” Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said after the Cardinals, trailing almost the entire game, rallied with five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to erase a 9-6 American Canyon lead and beat the Wolves 11-9 in semifinal-round action Wednesday afternoon in Lakeport.
In all three of their playoff games to date, the Cardinals have trailed entering their half of the sixth inning only to rally and win the game.
- They trailed 1-0 at home to St. Helena in a first-round game before scoring eight runs in the bottom of the sixth of an 8-1 win.
- They trailed 1-0 on the road against No. 3 seed Berean Christian and rallied for four runs in the top of the sixth during a 5-1 quarterfinal-round victory.
- They trailed 9-6 going to the bottom of the sixth Wednesday against American Canyon before erupting for five runs.
Now the sixth-seeded Cardinals advance to play Las Lomas, the No. 13 seed in the original Division 4 playoff field, and a fourth playoff win will not only give Clear Lake – and Lake County – its first sectional title in baseball since the Cardinals last did it in 1998, but a berth in the NorCal Regional playoffs, which take place next week (seedings, pairing announced Sunday).
No county team in baseball or softball has qualified for the NorCal Regionals since the extra layer of playoffs was added for the 2021 season, so the Cardinals have an opportunity to make a little history, just as the school’s football team did in 2022 after winning the section championship and advancing to the NorCal playoffs against Orland.
“We control how far we go and what we can accomplish,” Horne said of his players. “We’re still plenty hungry.”
Clear Lake (19-5) certainly has all the elements that go into a good team – solid pitching, plenty of offense as well as timely hitting – but it’s the team’s mental makeup that is another huge factor, according to Horne.
“They never really get down,” he said. “They’re a pretty positive group. When things aren’t going their way, they do a pretty good job of picking themselves up. I was a little worried early on today about our energy, the dugout got a little quiet and if there’s one thing I hate it’s a quiet dugout.”
It didn’t stay quiet for long.
Their season six outs away from ending as they came to bat trailing 9-6, the Cardinals got things rolling right off as Johnny Gonzales (3-for-5) hit the first pitch from starting pitcher Dylan Brown into left field for a single. Gonzales stole second base and moved to third on AJ Bruch’s groundout. Ryken Villanueva hit a flyball into center field, deep enough to score Gonzales, who was tagging up when the Wolves’ center field dropped the ball. Gonzales trotted home to make it 9-7, but instead of bases empty and two outs, Villanueva was standing on second base with just one out, and the Cardinals were in business.
American Canyon went to its bullpen at that point, taking out Brown, who had thrown 97 pitches, and replacing him with left-hander Bradley Keffer.
The pitching change certainly worked to the Cardinals’ advantage as Keffer couldn’t find the strike zone, throwing nine straight balls and walking Zane McAuley and Jacob Horne in the process, which load the bases.
Keffer got Sawyer Smith to fly out to right field for the second out, and he had one strike on David Cruz (2-for-2) before the game took an electrifying, game-defining turn. Cruz drilled a shot to deep center field and the American Canyon center fielder initially broke in. Realizing his mistake too late, he couldn’t backpedal fast enough to catch up with the ball, which soared over his head. Cruz slid into third base with a three-run triple as the Cardinals took their first lead of the game, 10-9, and a large Clear Lake crowd went nuts. Cruz scored on a passed ball moments later to make it 11-9.
“They just woke up finally,” Horne said of yet another sixth-inning comeback. “It’s great to experience but a little tough on the coach, but I’m getting used to it.”
Winning pitcher Bruch, who came on in relief of starter Smith in the fourth inning with the Cardinals trailing 6-4, gave up a leadoff single to American Canyon’s No. 9 hitter leading off the seventh, but he had no problem with the top of the Wolves’ order, striking out each of the next two batters and getting Andre Lopez on a flyball to right field to end the game.
Added Horne, “It’s a pleasure coaching this group.”
While the game ended on a big high for the Cardinals, that’s not the way it started.
American Canyon parlayed three hits and a walk off Smith, combining it with a Clear Lake error, to grab a 4-0 lead in the top of the first.
Clear Lake got one of those runs back in the bottom half, and while that might not seem like a big deal, it helped settle his team down, according to Horne.
“You don’t have to get it back all at once,” Horne said. “You just have to chip away, and these boys are good at it. They just keep coming at you.”
Jesse Hayes led off the Clear Lake first with a booming double to right-center field, advanced to third on an error and scored on a passed ball to make it 4-1.
The Cardinals tied the game with a three-run second that featured back-to-back-to-back two-out RBI hits by Hayes (2-for-4), Gonzales and Bruch, who tripled down the right-field line.
American Canyon pushed back in front 6-4 in the top of the third against Sawyer, who gave up a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly. The bases were still loaded with two outs when he struck out Royce Hall after a long battle as Hall fouled off several full-count pitches.
Clear Lake closed to 6-5 in the bottom of the third as Zane McAuley (2-for-3) led off with a single to center field, moved to second on a wild pitch, and to third on a Cruz single. When the Wolves misplayed the return throw to the infield, McAuley scored.
American Canyon went up 8-5 in the fourth against Bruch, including a run-scoring triple to left field that took a bad hop over the outfielder’s head. A fielding error brought home another run.
Clear Lake pecked away at that lead with a run in the fifth. McAuley hit a ground-rule double to deep left field leading off and scored two batters later on a two-base error by the Wolves. The Cardinals were looking for more with runners at first and third and only one out, but Brown pitched out of the jam by getting a strikeout and the red-hot hitting Hayes to ground out to shortstop.
The Wolves upped their lead to 9-6 in the top of the sixth after two were out and the bases empty. Brown reached on a bunt single and Isaac Anderson was hit by a pitch. A grounder misplayed at shortstop allowed Brown to race home with the run.
The Cardinals also reached the sectional finals in 2015, losing to Head-Royce. Ten years later one of the stars on that 2015 team, Jordan Chana, is an assistant coach.
Horne said the Cardinals aren’t just happy to have made it this far. They want more.
“The job’s not finished yet, so we won’t be satisfied,” he said. “We just need to play our game; it doesn’t matter who we’re playing.”
GAME NOTES: Las Lomas beat No. 8 Healdsburg 12-0 in five innings in the other semifinal Wednesday. Las Lomas defeated No. 4 Fort Bragg 1-0 in the opening round and No. 5 Moreau Catholic 7-1 in the quarterfinals … Jesse Hayes also was a starter, as a freshman, for Clear Lake’s 2022 section championship team that became the first county football team to participate in the NorCal playoffs … The NorCal Regional playoffs feature eight-team fields in all divisions. First-round games are Tuesday, semifinals Thursday and championship games Saturday, all at 4 p.m. The highest seed in all game pairings is the host school for all rounds … Clear Lake has won eight straight and 11 of its last 12 … Horne said he was learning toward starting Bruch against Las Lomas. Bruch has two of the Cardinals’ three playoff wins (Berean Christian, American Canyon).
