{"id":5908,"date":"2026-03-15T18:48:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T18:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=5908"},"modified":"2026-03-15T18:48:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T18:48:37","slug":"cards-top-branson-knights-split-with-arcata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=5908","title":{"rendered":"Cards top Branson, Knights split with Arcata"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Smith, Smart pitch complete-game gems in non-league varsity baseball action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake County Sports on Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KENTFIELD >> Working the count, waiting for their pitch and drilling it once they get it is what the Clear Lake Cardinals did most of last season and what they did Saturday in a 7-2 non-league varsity baseball win over Branson at College of Marin in Kentfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We had a lot of great at-bats where we fell behind in the count but ended up with eight- or nine-pitch walks,” Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said of the Cardinals. “They can swing it, but they are patient and look for their pitch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake\u2019s Sawyer Smith spotted the Bulls (2-2) a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning but pitched lights out the rest of the way, throwing a complete-game six-hitter with eight strikeouts and two walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSawyer came out trying to establish his fastball and they (Bulls) were squaring up everything at first,\u201d Horne said. \u201cHe got his splitter and changeup going and had them off balance the rest of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake hit the ball hard up and down its lineup, from one to nine, according to Horne. The Cardinals moved ahead to stay with a three-run top of the third before adding single runs in the fifth and sixth as well as two more in the seventh. Four Branson errors helped Clear Lake, especially during the three-run third, but it was the nine walks drawn by six different batters that really pleased Horne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe put pressure on them the whole game and it worked,\u201d Horne said. \u201cTheir three pitchers might have thrown 200 pitches. We really made them work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zane McAuley went 1-for-2 with a triple and two RBIs for the Cardinals while Johnny Gonzales III went 1-for-3 with a RBI. Other leaders were Jesse Hayes, who went 1-for-2 with three stolen bases, and Ryken Villanueva (1-for-3). AJ Bruch and Fabian Moreno also drove in runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake opens play in the Al Rabinovitz Tournament on Tuesday at 10 a.m. against Ukiah at Santa Rosa High School. Also entered are McKinleyville, Analy, Salesian, Montgomery, Eureka and Windsor. The tournament runs through Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other baseball action Saturday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville 10, Arcata 1 (first game)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arcata 4, Kelseyville 3 (10 inn., second game)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Arcata, Kelseyville split a doubleheader with the Arcata Tigers, taking the opener and dropping the 10-inning nightcap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville (1-6) won its first game of the season behind a 10-run outburst, almost as many runs as the Knights had scored in their first five games combined (12), and the solid pitching of sophomore JD Smart, who limited the Tigers to four hits while striking out 11 and walking one. He threw 96 pitches during the complete game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe threw very well,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul said. \u201cHe threw all of his pitches for strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville wasted no time taking the lead and building on it. The Knights led 8-0 after three innings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did a real good job of playing small ball, bunting the ball,\u201d Shaul said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Pivniska went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a RBI to spark a 15-hit Kelseyville attack. Ryan Keithly (2-for-3) drove in three runs, Smart went 2-for-4 with a RBI, Elijah Watkins went 2-for-3 with a RBI, and Deake Lyndall went 2-for-5. Brayton Thomas, Carson Stone (RBI), Michael Dougherty (RBI) and Max Lee also had hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arcata outlasted Kelseyville in the nightcap, finally breaking through in the bottom of the 10th<\/sup> on a two-out RBI single. The teams had been tied 3-3 since both scored a run in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had some chances,\u201d Shaul said of missed Kelseyville scoring opportunities, including a missed suicide-squeeze bunt. “We’re getting a lot of production from the top of the order, but we need the bottom of the order to step up and we’ll be fine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stone (1-for-4) and Keithly knocked in runs for Kelseyville while Smart went 2-for-4. Pivniska (double), Lyndall and Lee had the other Kelseyville hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas, working in relief of Reese Johnson, took the loss despite a solid 5 1\/3-inning stint during which he allowed only one run while striking out eight and walking five. Johnson went the first 4 1\/3 innings, allowing four hits and three runs (one earned) with four strikeouts and no walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights aren\u2019t scheduled to play again until March 24 at Middletown (league opener), but Shaul said Kelseyville is looking to add a game to its schedule sometime next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smith, Smart pitch complete-game gems in non-league varsity baseball action Lake County Sports on Facebook KENTFIELD >> Working the count, waiting for their pitch and drilling it once they get it is what the Clear Lake Cardinals did most of last season and what they did Saturday in a 7-2 non-league varsity baseball win over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,16,84,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5909,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}