{"id":6332,"date":"2026-04-17T19:14:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6332"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:14:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:14:27","slug":"bird-pitches-perfect-game-against-trojans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6332","title":{"rendered":"Bird pitches perfect game against Trojans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cloverdale sophomore retires all 15 batters she faces in five-inning, 14-0 league win<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brian Sumpter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLOVERDALE >> Camryn Bird\u2019s perfect game didn\u2019t come without its nervous moments Thursday afternoon at Daly Field in Cloverdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bird retired all 15 Lower Lake batters she faced as the North Central League I-leading Eagles improved to 6-0 and 11-2 overall with a 14-0, five-inning victory over the Trojans (2-4, 3-7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook at how well she did, especially for being only a sophomore,\u201d Lower Lake head coach Julie Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bird struck out nine, including the side in the top of the third, as Cloverdale won its seventh straight game. Lower Lake hit only two balls hard against the Eagles\u2019 ace the first four innings. One was Heidi Ortega\u2019s flyout to center field leading off the top of the fourth, the other a hard shot down the right-field line off the bat Shayla McGrath two batters later, a drive that curled foul. Bird worked the count to 3-2 on McGrath, her first three-ball count of the game, before striking her out to end the inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the high drama for Bird came in the top of the fifth. While the game was well in hand for the Eagles after an eight-run bottom of the fourth pushed their lead to 14-0, the question remained whether or not the Trojans, who have some very capable hitters in their lineup, could break up, in order, Bird\u2019s perfect game, no-hitter and shutout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene Jack led off the fifth by hitting a squibber back to Bird, who fielded the ball cleanly and had plenty of time to make the throw, one that she bounced near the feet of first baseman Grace Rhodes, the freshman picking the ball out of the dirt for a perfect-game sustaining out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamiya Lee-Ayers nearly broke up the perfect game and no-hitter when she followed with a grounder into the hole at shortstop where Lexie Hernandez backhanded the ball and made a long and accurate throw to first base just in time for the out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With one out to go, Bird worked the count full to Madelyn Garner, who struck out swinging to end the game, only Bird\u2019s 55th<\/sup> pitch of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale scored the only runs Bird would need in the bottom of the first on a RBI single by Emmy Reasoner and Kaloni Brown\u2019s sacrifice fly. The Eagles added four unearned runs in the bottom of the second, taking advantage of four Lower Lake infield errors and two Crystal Pepper walks in the inning. Her defense unable to help her, Pepper helped herself by striking out the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eagles busted the game wide open in the fourth, helped along by six Pepper walks, a two-run single by Kylee Vlasak (2-for-3, 2 RBIs), two run-scoring wild pitches, two more Lower Lake errors, and Brown\u2019s second sacrifice fly of the game. The senior also had a double off the left-field fence earlier in the inning as the Eagles sent 12 batters to the plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That most of Lower Lake\u2019s six errors came on routine plays was a tough pill to swallow for Jackson, who said her team simply needs to \u201ccome together\u201d at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems like we have some girls playing well one game, the others not so much,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running into a solid team and program such as Cloverdale\u2019s always presents challenges, according to Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Obviously no one likes losing, but Margaret (Fitzgerald, Cloverdale head coach) knows what she’s doing, and they have a very well-disciplined team that we’re trying to become,” Jackson said. “We have a very green team and getting there is a slow process.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale is trying to end St. Helena\u2019s reign as league champion. The two teams, both undefeated in league play to this point, have yet to meet this season. They are scheduled to play April 24 in St. Helena and May 13 in Cloverdale, the final league game for both teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake hits the road Tuesday to play Kelseyville at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cloverdale sophomore retires all 15 batters she faces in five-inning, 14-0 league win By Brian Sumpter Lake County Sports on Facebook CLOVERDALE >> Camryn Bird\u2019s perfect game didn\u2019t come without its nervous moments Thursday afternoon at Daly Field in Cloverdale. Bird retired all 15 Lower Lake batters she faced as the North Central League I-leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,24,18,89],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332"}],"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=6332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6334,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions\/6334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}