CLHS bats held in check as Walnut Creek team claims sectional championship in Lakeport
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKEPORT >> Unable to come up with the big hits that have been a hallmark of their season, the Clear Lake Cardinals fell 5-1 to the Las Lomas Knights in the North Coast Section Division 4 baseball championship game Saturday afternoon in Lakeport.
Despite being limited to two hits, the Cardinals did have opportunities to score against the Knights (16-11-1), the result of drawing six walks and having three players hit by pitches. Clear Lake (19-6) threatened in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings but went a collective 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, their lone run scoring on AJ Bruch’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh.
Las Lomas starting pitcher Nate Sison worked six-plus innings for the win while another left-hander, Tyler Van Deusen, relived with two on and no outs in the bottom of the seventh and got the last three outs. Sison’s curveball was a definite factor in the win as he was able to keep the Cardinals, who have been pounding the ball of late, guessing a bit at the plate.
“He did a great job keeping us off balance,” Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said of the junior, who is one half of a formidable pitching duo for the Knights. “We let it affect our approach and our at-bats,” Horne added of Sison’s off-speed offerings.
Sison and his Clear Lake counterpart, AJ Bruch, worked a quick first two innings before the Knights scored their first run in the top of the third. Harrison May, who bats first in the Las Lomas order, singled with one out, stole second and came around to score when teammate Jack Foscalina reached on an infield single to shortstop and collided with first baseman Peyton Portlock, jarring the bar loose as May broke for the plate.
A brief meeting between the three umpires as they discussed whether Foscalina had interfered with Portlock went in the Knights’ favor as he was ruled safe at first.
Clear Lake got its leadoff man aboard in the bottom of the third as David Cruz was hit by a pitch. Portlock bounced out to the right side as Cruz advanced to second, but Jesse Hayes and Johnny Gonzales, two of the Cardinals’ hottest hitters, couldn’t get him home. Hayes flied out to right and Gonzales, after a long battle at the plate, hit a comebacker to Sison to end the inning.
The Knights picked up an unearned run in the top of the fourth to go up 2-0. Bruch retired each of the first two Las Lomas hitters with ease before Sison reached on a two-base throwing error. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on an infield single as Jack Pardella dribbled a slow grounder up the third-base line and beat it out.
Clear Lake put its leadoff man on again in the fourth as Bruch drew a walk. He almost immediately advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw but was stranded there as Sison retired the next three Cardinals without allowing the ball out of the infield.
Las Lomas padded its lead in the top of the fifth, scoring its final three runs of the game. The rally got going when the No. 9 hitter in the Knights’ lineup, Andrew Misasi, led off with a single to left field. May’s bunt single and a passed ball moments later put runners at second and third. Foscalina followed with the biggest hit of the day, a single into right-center field that cleared the bases and made it 4-0. Foscalina was cut down stealing, but Cruz Lopez walked and moved up to second on a groundout. Jimmy Salinas then singled into center field to score Lopez.
Clear Lake, still without a hit, tried to rally with two outs and the bases empty in the bottom of the fifth as Portlock walked and Hayes was hit by a pitch, but again the Cardinals couldn’t get the big hit they needed as the inning ended with a groundout to second base.
“If we get a hit or two in those situations, we’re right in the game,” Horne said. “We’ve done a good job at that (in the playoffs), but today we just didn’t the hits we needed.”
With Sawyer Smith on in relief of Bruch to start the sixth inning, the Cardinals did a good job of keeping the score at 5-0. Las Lomas loaded the bases with a hit batsman and back-to-back one-out singles, but Foscalina (3-for-4, 3 RBIs), with a chance to put the game out or reach, bounced into a second-to-short-to-first double play that kept the score in manageable territory.
Having rallied from behind to take the lead in the sixth inning of each of their first three playoff games, the Cardinals picked up their first hit of the day as Bruch led off with a single into left field. After a strikeout, Zane McAuley drew a four-pitch walk, but the budding rally stopped there. Jacob Horne hit a flyball to center that moved Bruch to third, with Smith grounded out to third base to end the inning and Clear Lake’s streak of sixth-inning playoff magic.
After Sawyer worked a scoreless top of the seventh, the Cardinals tried their hand at a seventh-inning comeback. Cruz drew a four-pitch walk and pinch-hitter Ezekiel Lopez singled into right field, ending Sison’s day as Van Deusen came on in relief. Hayes flied out to right field, Cruz moving up to third, then Gonzales was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With a large Clear Lake crowd sensing a comeback, Bruch hit a flyball deep down the right field line that the Las Lomas outfielder caught up with and gloved just as he crossed into foul territory. Cruz tagged up and scored to make it 5-1. Clear Lake cleanup hitter Ryken Villanueva followed with a line drive headed to left field that the Knights’ third baseman gloved at the last second to end the game.
“They made a couple of nice defensive plays there,” Horne said of the catch in right field and the game-ending line drive that prevented the Cardinals from getting the potential tying run to the plate in the form of McAuley. “You have to give them the credit for that.”
Though the Cardinals were gunning for their first section in baseball since 1998, Horne said the 2025 season has been a complete success for Clear Lake, which was playing a school in Las Lomas that has nearly five times its enrollment (the Knights are Division 2 by section classification compared to Clear Lake’s Division 5).
“I told them not to hang their heads,” Horne said of his post-game meeting with players. “We’re returning roughly 80 percent of our players (seven starters out of nine) and we have guys to fill those other two spots.”
Horne had nothing but praise for Bruch’s effort. The junior worked four innings in relief to pick up the win in Clear Lake’s 11-9 semifinal-round victory Wednesday over American Canyon, another Division 2 team, so he was coming back on only two days rest.
“AJ’s line doesn’t indicate how great he pitched today,” Horne said. “We had plenty of chances to help him out (at the plate) and we can’t give a team like that the (extra) chances we did.”
Bruch allowed 10 hits in five innings and three earned runs while striking out four and walking one.
The Cardinals applied for an at-large berth into the NorCal Regionals which open on Tuesday and were awaiting word Sunday if they had made up.
“We’ll just hope for the best and maybe we can keep it going,” Horne said of the Cardinals’ season. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a home game.”
GAME NOTES: Las Lomas won its second sectional title in baseball, its first since 2003 … Clear Lake also reached the sectional finals in 2015 … The NorCal Regional playoffs consist of five eight-team divisions, divisions 1-5. Just as in the sectional playoffs, teams can be moved up or down as many as two divisions regardless of their enrollment … Clear Lake fans packed the Clear Lake High School baseball field for Saturday’s game, which took place in triple-digit heat … A temporary fence was in place for the game though it never came into play … It’s the first time Clear Lake has hosted a sectional championship game in baseball. When the Cardinals won in 1993 and 1998, all playoff games took place at Anton Stadium in Ukiah.
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