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Cloverdale drops fifth straight
CLOVERDALE -- It was the same old song and dance for Cloverdale's baseball team Thursday night as it dropped its fifth straight game to Shakamak, 11-7.
"You know we're winless, but it seems that almost every game we get within a run or two and we keep battling. We just can't get the win," CHS Coach Brian Archer said.
Cloverdale is now 0-5 on the season after playing its fifth game in six days and is off until Monday, when it travels to Monrovia for a West Central Conference match up.
In the beginning, it looked like Cloverdale was going to get its first win against the winless defending Class 1A champs when Jon Alexander scored on a Laker error in the second inning, but it didn't happen.
Shakamak took the lead in the next frame when Eric Salter scored on a passed ball, followed by Scott McNabb, who plated Cory Deschamp with a sacrifice fly to left field. The Lakers then scored one in the fourth and two in the fifth inning for a 5-2 lead, and then came the sixth frame.
In baseball, one inning can make or break a team and for Cloverdale, that inning was the sixth.
Shakamak began at the bottom of its lineup and batted around, tacking on six runs, three of them coming from Tyler Sparks' double.
"That sixth inning hurt us," Archer said. "Take away that one inning, and things could've been different."
Going into the bottom of the sixth frame, the Clovers found themselves in an all too familiar spot, trailing and having only two chances left to make something happened -- and they did.
The Clovers got four straight hits, including an RBI single from Brennan Jepperson.
In the bottom of the seventh with two outs, Cloverdale exploded at the plate. With runners at first and second and two outs, Kyle Martin singled past the infield, scoring Chad Cummings and Frank Skiles.
Jepperson then walked up to the plate and blasted a two run shot over the right field fence, cutting the Lakers lead to 11-7. But that would be as close as the Clovers would get, as Lakers' pitcher Jarred VanHorn retired Ethan Atwood for the final out.
"I don't know what it is," Archer said about his team's ending performance. "It's just like they realize that they we have only two at bats left and we better get it going now.
"Like tonight in the bottom of seventh with two outs, our bats came to life and we start hitting the ball. I told them if we start doing what we did in the seventh tonight, in the first two innings and put the other team in the situation that we have been in the past few games, and the game's ours," Archer said. "We just need to put it together. But, you can't ask for more than what they did in the seventh."
Cloverdale was originally scheduled to play Eminence today, but the game has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts.
At Cloverdale
Shakamak 001 126 0 -- 11 7 3
Cloverdale 010 101 4 -- 7 11 2
Martin; Dale (4), Dorsett (1.3), Burdette (1.6) (CL); Sapp; Grissom (3), Bish (3), VanHorn (1) (SH)
WP -- Grissom
LP -- Dale
S -- VanHorn
2B -- Osburn (CL), B. Dale (CL), Van Horn (SH), Salter 2 (SH), Sparks (SH)
HR -- Jepperson (CL)
Next Game -- Cloverdale (0-5, 0-2 WCC) travels to Monrovia Monday for a 4:30 WCC game.