The varsity baseball Eagles made the most of abbreviated diamond action last week, turning back visiting Clear Lake, 4-3 in the league opener on March 21.
Although Cloverdale controlled most of the game behind a dominant pitching performance from Dylan Scaramella, the Eagles survived a few tense moments in an exciting seventh inning to pull out the victory.
“We played six innings of perfect baseball, the best I’ve seen us play yet,” Eagle’s coach Ben West said. “In the seventh inning we gave them an opportunity to get back into the game and they capitalized on some minor mistakes.”
Scaramella went the distance, taking a shutout into the final frame before the Cardinals plated three runs to knot the contest at 3-3. Not a problem, as Keller Sibert laced a two-out double in Cloverdale’s final at-bat and later scored to lift the Eagles to a 4-3 win.
“This is the best I’ve seen Scaramella throw yet, not only was he locating three pitches, but he controlled the speed and tempo of the game,” West noted. “We made a couple of switches defensively and it paid off — we’re definitely on the right track now.”
In addition to Sibert, top hitters for Cloverdale included Josh Lemley and Logan Axell, who contributed two hits apiece.
The Eagles (1-0, 4-4) will resume league action on March 26, weather permitting, at Willits, followed by a home tilt with visiting Kelseyville on Friday, March 29 at 4 p.m. Cloverdale will travel to Fort Bragg next Tuesday, April 2 for a 4 p.m. start.
