Baseball team was trying to become first county squad to advance to Regional playoffs
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LAKEPORT >> Clear Lake High School’s bid to land an at-large berth in the NorCal Regional baseball playoffs came up short Sunday when the CIF announced the eight-team brackets in divisions 1-5 and the Cardinals weren’t among the 40 teams selected.
Clear Lake, the top-ranked Division 5 team in the North Coast Section this season, ended up losing out to another Division 5 team that was ranked considerably lower in the section, Swett High School of Crockett.
Both Clear Lake and Swett lost their section championship games Saturday, Clear Lake falling 5-1 to Las Lomas of Walnut Creek in the Division 4 championship game and Swett dropping a 3-1 decision to St. Mary’s of Albany in the Division 6 finals. The decision to pick Swett over Clear Lake was an interesting one considering Clear Lake (19-6) had a better overall record than Swett (14-7-2) and a better record against two common opponents – the Cardinals were a combined 4-0 against Middletown and Lower Lake this season while Swett beat Lower Lake 8-7 and tied Middletown 2-2.
Swett received the No. 5 seed in the NorCal Division 5 bracket and will face North Section champion Los Molinos (23-6) in a first-round game Tuesday.
Clear Lake was trying to become the first Lake County team (baseball or softball) to reach the NorCal Regionals, an extra layer of playoffs added by the CIF, first in 2021 for SoCal teams and in 2022 for NorCal teams.
The Cardinals certainly are in a position to make a run at the NorCals again next year when they return most of their squad, including seven starters.
