Ladies push unbeaten record to 8-0
Cloverdale High School softball and baseball teams continued to roll in league varsity action this week, combining for three wins in four outings.
The Lady Eagles (8-0, 5-0) kept their unbeaten streak alive with road and home wins over St. Helena (19-3) and Lower Lake (2-1) to keep pace with Kelseyville atop the NCL 1 standings.
The team has maintained focus after a series of rain-outs in the early going, showing a steady improvement on both offense and defense.
“We have a young team which continues to improve,” veteran Eagle’s coach Margaret Fitzgerald reported. “I’m happy with the way we’ve started the season.”
At press time the ladies were preparing to resume league play on April 24 against visiting Clear Lake, followed by a Thursday, April 26 trip to Willits. Cloverdale will host Kelseyville in a first-place showdown next Tuesday, May 1. All games start at 4 p.m.
Girls stay perfect
It was all Eagles in an April 17 trip to St. Helena, jumping on Saints’ pitching for nine runs in the first two frames. Pitchers Tehya Bird (3 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 3 Ks) and Vanessa Fisher (2 IP, 1 hit, 1 ER) did the rest, as Cloverdale rolled to a 19-3 win in five innings.
Leading the hitting corps were Heather Sterling (4 for 4, 3B, 3 runs, 3 RBIs), Bird (3 for 5, HR, 3 runs, 6 RBIs), Fisher (3 for 5, 3B, run, 3 RBIs), Janaye Hammond (3 for 5, 2 runs), Alma Beltran (1 for 1, run, RBI), Nicky Martinez (1 for 2, 3 runs), Lane Hughes (1 for 5, run, 2 RBIs) and Angelina Cordova (1 for 2, 2 runs).
Bird (7 IP, 2 hits, 1 ER, 6 Ks) was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Lower Lake’s Shelby Sepeda on Friday, as the game remained scoreless after five. The Trojans plated a solo run in the sixth to take a brief lead, but the Eagles answered with two in the bottom on their way to a 2-1 victory.
Pacing the Cloverdale attack were Bird (2 for 3), Bernal (1 for 3), Martinez (1 for 2, run) and Sterling (1 for 3).
Eagles gain split
The CHS baseball team (6-5, 4-3) gained an even split in a pair of league contests, beginning on April 17 in a 7-6 loss at St. Helena in eight innings.
The Eagles were clawed back from a 5-1 fifth-inning deficit with three runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to send it into extra frames knotted at 6-6. The excitement was short-lived as the Saints scratched for the winning run in the home half of the eighth to emerge with a 7-6 win.
“We made some mistakes early in the game, but showed a lot of fight in scoring four late in the game to tie it,” CHS coach Ben West said. “Unfortunately they walked off on us in the bottom of the eighth.”
Cloverdale stormed back into the win column on Friday against visiting Lower Lake, pounding out 16 hits for 15 runs in a 15-5 romp.
Keller Sibert (1.2 IP, 4 hits, 2 ERs, 2 Ks) and Kamrin Mitchell (4.1 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 9 Ks) combined in the win, while leading hitters were Drew Edens (4 for 5, 2 runs, RBI), James Wirt (3 for 5, HR, 2B, 3 runs, 2 RBIs), Sibert (12 for 2, run, 2 RBIs), Josh Lemley (2 for 4, 2B, 2 runs), BJ Grady (1 for 2, 3 runs) and Tucker Morgan (1 for 5, RBI).
The Eagles were to resume action at Healdsburg on April 23 (after press time), followed by home and away dates against Clear Lake (April 24) and Willits (April 26, 4 p.m.). Cloverdale will entertain Kelseyville next Tuesday, May 1 (4 p.m.).
