{"id":6237,"date":"2026-04-08T19:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6237"},"modified":"2026-04-08T19:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:42:35","slug":"saints-answer-with-big-win-over-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6237","title":{"rendered":"Saints answer with big win over Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

St. Helena knocks Clear Lake back into first-place tie atop varsity baseball standings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

ST. HELENA >> With a chance to take control of the North Central League I varsity baseball race, the Clear Lake Cardinals fell back into a tie for first place following an 8-3 loss to the St. Helena Saints on Tuesday afternoon at St. Helena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day after beating St. Helena 14-3 in five innings at Lakeport, a victory that moved the Cardinals (5-1 league, 9-6-1) atop the league standings and left them as the only undefeated team, the Saints (5-1, 10-6) bounced right back with a gut-check win at home, guaranteeing there will be no undefeated NCL I champion for a second year in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey seized the opportunities,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said of the Saints, who made the most of the Cardinals\u2019 four errors, just as Clear Lake capitalized on St. Helena errors in its win Monday at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had the big emotional game yesterday (Monday),\u201d Horne said. \u201cToday we were back on our heels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horne said all four of the Cardinals\u2019 errors came at the worst possible time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll four errors were crucial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake starting pitcher AJ Bruch and St. Helena starter Charlie Blaum were locked in a pitcher\u2019s duel through the first three innings with Clear Lake ahead 1-0 after scoring a run in the top of the second. Blaum pitched a scoreless top of the fourth before the Saints pulled ahead in the bottom half, scoring three times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAJ was cruising before they scored three in the fourth,\u201d Horne said, an inning that opened with an error by the Cardinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake got back even with two runs in the top of the fifth, but St. Helena scored in the bottom of the inning for a 4-3 lead and then put the game away with a four-run sixth, aided greatly by two Clear Lake errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruch pitched a complete game, allowing eight hits and only two earned runs while striking out six and walking one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur boys were pressing for some reason,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Helena snapped a four-game losing streak to Clear Lake as well as Clear Lake\u2019s 10-game league winning streak dating back to last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully we can bounce back against Middletown,\u201d Horne said of Clear Lake\u2019s two games next week against the Mustangs (home Tuesday and away Friday).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zane McAuley went 2-for-3 with a triple and RBI against St. Helena while Jesse Hayes went 2-for-2 and Ezekiel Lopez 1-for-3 with a RBI. Johnny Gonzales III and Sawyer Smith had Clear Lake\u2019s other hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blaum scattered seven hits while picking up the win for St. Helena. He struck out three and walked five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julian Earls powered the Saints at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a triple and three RBIs. Henry Ray went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs while Adam Herdell (1-for-3), Tyler Agapoff (1-for-3) and Cole Joy (1-for-3) all had one RBI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of St. Helena\u2019s win and Kelseyville\u2019s 14-0 victory in five innings at Upper Lake, the three teams are now in a virtual tie for first place. Kelseyville (4-1) will move in a flat-footed tie with a win Friday at home against Upper Lake. Clear Lake and St. Helena are both off until Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Helena knocks Clear Lake back into first-place tie atop varsity baseball standings Lake County Sports on Facebook ST. HELENA >> With a chance to take control of the North Central League I varsity baseball race, the Clear Lake Cardinals fell back into a tie for first place following an 8-3 loss to the St. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,16,84,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237"}],"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=6237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6238,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237\/revisions\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}