Second-inning error opens floodgates for Clear Lake in battle between NCL I rivals
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKEPORT >> Scoring first is usually a good thing. Getting the first out of an inning also tends to yield beneficial results.
On the other hand, if the team you’re playing is Clear Lake, all bets are off.
While Kelseyville struck first Friday, scoring a run in the top of the first inning, and while the Knights retired Clear Lake’s leadoff hitter in each of the first four innings, the Cardinals overpowered their archrival for the second time in three days, repeating a 12-2, five-inning road win Wednesday with a 12-2, five-inning home victory Friday afternoon in Lakeport.
“When we play our game it’s hard for any team to keep up with us,” Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said. “When we catch the ball, it makes our pitching even better, and we have the pitching and hitting, so that’s two out of three things we can count on every game. That’s a good thing.”
Clear Lake (9-1, league, 13-6-1 league) kept pace with St. Helena (9-1) atop the league standings with four games remaining for both teams. Kelseyville (6-3) isn’t mathematically eliminated from winning a fourth straight league title, but the Knights need to run the table and get some help from Fort Bragg (6-4), which plays Clear Lake twice on the final week of the regular season. Kelseyville also has two games left against St. Helena on the final week.
While Clear Lake beat up on St. Helena 14-3 in their first meeting earlier this month in Lakeport, the Saints came right back to beat the Cardinals 8-3 three days later.
“We were dead set on not letting that happen (against Kelseyville),” said Horne, who will be rooting for the Knights when they play St. Helena twice during that final week league play.
“For one time in my life I’ll root for something orange and black,” said Horne, a lifelong Dodgers fan, referring to Kelseyville’s (and the San Francisco Giants’) colors.”
“I might have to consider throwing a game to St. Helena,” Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul joked after hearing Horne’s comment. “No, we both don’t want to lose to St. Helena,” Shaul said of his and Horne’s feelings regarding the Saints.
Clear Lake’s own murderer’s row – a batting order with no appreciable weakness – once again pounced on the Knights, who grabbed a 1-0 lead on Ryan Keithly’s clutch two-out RBI single in the top of the first against Clear Lake starter Sawyer Smith.
The Cardinals answered with three runs in the bottom of the first. With one out, Johnny Gonzales III and Zane McAuley hit back-to-back singles. Gonzales moved over to third on McAuley’s hit while McAuley advanced to second when Kelseyville missed the cutoff man. Ryken Villanueva’s sacrifice fly to center field tied the score at 1-1. AJ Bruch’s infield single scored Gonzales before Bruch stole second base. After Kelseyville starter Carson Stone walked Smith, Ezekiel Lopez, the No. 7 hitter, singled to score Bruch, the first of his four hits on the day.
“When your No. 7 guy goes 4-for-4 and doubles twice, that’s saying something,” Horne said. “I’ll take that.”
Smith struck out the side in the top of the second, giving him five strikeouts in two innings. He also struck out the side in the third and fifth innings en route to a 13-strikeout day.
Stone loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the second when Shaul went to his bullpen for Brayton Thomas, who did a commendable job in his three-plus innings of work. Thomas struck out cleanup hitter Villanueva and appeared to be out of the jam when Bruch followed with a grounder to shortstop that should have ended the inning. Unfortunately for Thomas and the Knights, the ball was bobbled for an error and a run scored. It opened the game for four more Clear Lake runs in the inning, all of them unearned. Smith followed with a two-run single, Lopez doubled home another run, and Cruz’s RBI single made it 8-1.
“You can’t give a team like that extra outs,” Shaul said. “We gave them five outs in the inning.”
Besides the booted ball at shortstop, the Knight had another chance to get out of the inning with Smith at the plate and the score 4-1. Smith popped up a ball into foul territory that was going to be a tough play for catcher Case Pivniska, who couldn’t get his glove it.
“Someone should have called him off,” Shaul said of two other Kelseyville players who were in the vicinity.
Brayton stranded Clear Lake runners at first and third in both the third and fourth innings. Kelseyville had a chance to move a bit closer in the third when Deake Lyndall drew a leadoff and moved to second on JD Smart’s infield single. While a throwing error later in the inning gave the Knights an unearned run, Smith worked out of further trouble by striking out three straight batters.
Kelseyville had a runner aboard with two outs in the fourth inning when Clear Lake shortstop Gonzales made a nice running catch on a soft line drive of the bat of Lyndall that was trying to reach shallow left field.
“We need to do a better job of taking advantage of those situations,” Shaul said. “Once you let them get in a rhythm, it’s that much tougher,” he added of Clear Lake’s starting pitchers.
Thomas ran into all kinds of trouble in the bottom of the fifth, beginning with a booming triple to right-center off the bat of leadoff hitter Gonzales, who would have had a home run on most any other field (Clear Lake’s field has no fence).
Horne estimated the drive at 380 feet.
McAuley’s line-drive single scored Gonzales to make it 9-2. He advanced to second base on Villanueva’s groundout. Bruch followed with an infield single to put runners at the corners. After Bruch stole second, Smith, Lopez and freshman Grayson Murray connected for back-to-back-to-back RBI singles – the final two against reliever Reese Johnson – to end the game.
Eight of nine Clear Lake players had at least one hit, led by Lopez. Bruch, McAuley, Gonzales and Smith had two apiece.
Smart went 2-for-2 for the Knights, who had four hits. Keithly and Pivniska had the others.
Clear Lake plays Upper Lake twice next week, beginning with a Tuesday game at Upper Lake. Kelseyville is at Cloverdale on Tuesday and home against Upper Lake on Wednesday.
GAME NOTES: Sawyer Smith’s two games against the Knights this week certainly didn’t disappoint. He was 5-for-6 at the plate with two home runs, including a grand slam, and nine RBIs on top of throwing a four-hitter with 13 strikeouts for the win on Friday … The last time Clear Lake swept the season series from Kelseyville was 2015, which is also the last time the Cardinals won the NCL I (14-0) … Smith struck out four straight Knights at one point and five of six … The Knights made a couple of nice plays in the field, second baseman Lyndall taking a hit away from Bruch to end the bottom of the third after gloving his line drive, and Thomas in the bottom of the fourth on an infield popup … Clear Lake has won four in a row and nine of its last 10 … The Cardinals are 10-0-1 this season in games in which they’ve scored 10 or more runs. They’ve 10-runned the opposition in all nine of their league wins to date … Clear Lake senior Jesse Hayes is among the North Coast Section’s top base stealers with 29.
