{"id":6418,"date":"2026-04-25T21:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6418"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:43:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:43:00","slug":"cards-hand-knights-another-12-2-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=6418","title":{"rendered":"Cards hand Knights another 12-2 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Second-inning error opens floodgates for Clear Lake in battle between NCL I rivals<\/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

LAKEPORT >> Scoring first is usually a good thing. Getting the first out of an inning also tends to yield beneficial results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, if the team you\u2019re playing is Clear Lake, all bets are off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Kelseyville struck first Friday, scoring a run in the top of the first inning, and while the Knights retired Clear Lake\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we play our game it\u2019s hard for any team to keep up with us,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Brian Horne said. \u201cWhen we catch the ball, it makes our pitching even better, and we have the pitching and hitting, so that\u2019s two out of three things we can count on every game. That\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cWe were dead set on not letting that happen (against Kelseyville),\u201d said Horne, who will be rooting for the Knights when they play St. Helena twice during that final week league play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor one time in my life I\u2019ll root for something orange and black,\u201d said Horne, a lifelong Dodgers fan, referring to Kelseyville\u2019s (and the San Francisco Giants\u2019) colors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI might have to consider throwing a game to St. Helena,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Billy Shaul joked after hearing Horne\u2019s comment. \u201cNo, we both don\u2019t want to lose to St. Helena,\u201d Shaul said of his and Horne\u2019s feelings regarding the Saints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake\u2019s own murderer\u2019s row \u2013 a batting order with no appreciable weakness \u2013 once again pounced on the Knights, who grabbed a 1-0 lead on Ryan Keithly\u2019s clutch two-out RBI single in the top of the first against Clear Lake starter Sawyer Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s hit while McAuley advanced to second when Kelseyville missed the cutoff man. Ryken Villanueva\u2019s sacrifice fly to center field tied the score at 1-1. AJ Bruch\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen your No. 7 guy goes 4-for-4 and doubles twice, that\u2019s saying something,\u201d Horne said. \u201cI\u2019ll take that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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\u2019s RBI single made it 8-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t give a team like that extra outs,\u201d Shaul said. \u201cWe gave them five outs in the inning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t get his glove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone should have called him off,\u201d Shaul said of two other Kelseyville players who were in the vicinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cWe need to do a better job of taking advantage of those situations,\u201d Shaul said. \u201cOnce you let them get in a rhythm, it\u2019s that much tougher,\u201d he added of Clear Lake\u2019s starting pitchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s field has no fence).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horne estimated the drive at 380 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McAuley\u2019s line-drive single scored Gonzales to make it 9-2. He advanced to second base on Villanueva\u2019s 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 \u2013 the final two against reliever Reese Johnson \u2013 to end the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight of nine Clear Lake players had at least one hit, led by Lopez. Bruch, McAuley, Gonzales and Smith had two apiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart went 2-for-2 for the Knights, who had four hits. Keithly and Pivniska had the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

GAME NOTES:<\/strong> Sawyer Smith\u2019s two games against the Knights this week certainly didn\u2019t 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 \u2026 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) \u2026 Smith struck out four straight Knights at one point and five of six \u2026 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 \u2026 Clear Lake has won four in a row and nine of its last 10 \u2026 The Cardinals are 10-0-1 this season in games in which they\u2019ve scored 10 or more runs. They\u2019ve 10-runned the opposition in all nine of their league wins to date \u2026 Clear Lake senior Jesse Hayes is among the North Coast Section\u2019s top base stealers with 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019re playing is Clear Lake, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,16,84,17,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418"}],"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=6418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6420,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6418\/revisions\/6420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}