Shaky defense not enough to derail Cards in North Central League I varsity baseball action
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LAKEPORT >> The Cloverdale Eagles made the most of Clear Lake’s five errors to keep it close, but the Cardinals’ bats had the last word in a 10-6 North Central League I varsity baseball win Monday afternoon in Lakeport.
“Thank God we can hit because we couldn’t play catch today,” Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said of his team’s defensive miscues on what were otherwise routine plays.
“We overran a flyball in the first inning and let two runs score,” Horne said of Cloverdale’s three-run top of the first inning.
Clear Lake (3-0 league, 7-5-1 overall) counted with three runs in the bottom half but should have had more, according to Horne.
“We could have had seven or eight runs,” Horne said.
Cloverdale finally snapped the 3-all tie with a run in the top of the fourth, but Zane McAuley’s two-run ground-rule double in the bottom half put Clear Lake ahead to stay at 5-4. The Cardinals added three more runs in the fifth, two scoring on a David Cruz double to the left-center field gap, to go up 8-4, and the Cardinals made it 10-4 with a two-run sixth.
The Eagles (0-3, 4-5) scored their final two runs in the top of the seventh against reliever Cruz, who came on in the sixth to replace starter Sawyer Smith.
Smith worked 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (two earned) with 12 strikeouts and four walks. He hit the 110-pitch limit in the sixth.
Three of the Cardinals’ errors came in the first inning as the team just never settled in defensively, according to Horne.
“It’s just one of those games you hate as a coach,” Horne said. “There was low energy in the dugout. It was weird.”
And it got even weirder later in the game when Horne had to break up a scuffle between two of his own players in the dugout, neither of them starters.
“Sawyer was doing his job, we just didn’t give him much help (on defense),” Horne said.
AJ Bruch went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to spark Clear Lake at the plate along with McAuley (2-for-4), who drove in three runs. Smith (2-for-4) also drove in two runs.
The same two teams play Friday in Cloverdale at 4 p.m. Clear Lake takes on St. Helena twice early next week, with the Cardinals hosting the Saints on Monday and traveling to St. Helena on Tuesday.
