Lindsay riding 11-game win streak

They might be flying under the radar but there’s no debate.

Of all the Orange Belt’s dirt-sport teams, the Lindsay softball team is the hottest heading into postseason play.

The Cardinals (21-7, 11-1 ESL) are fresh off a winning their league by two games and are rolling into the Division V Valley playoffs on an 11-game win streak.

And don’t tell them it’s just because of how small they are or who they play.

“People think ‘Oh you play against other small schools so it’s easy,”’ senior pitcher Cassie Manning said. “It’s not because in baseball and softball, it’s any man’s game really.”

Lindsay lost to Corcoran in round one but won 10 straight league games — beating fellow Division V playoff squads Corcoran and Woodlake twice — en route to a second straight ESL championship.

This wasn’t simply a three-month quest. The majority of this team has played together since the sixth grade, before girls’ youth sports were commonplace in Lindsay.

“A couple of girls didn’t feel like they contributed as much as they wanted to our success and I said, ‘You don’t contribute to our success our program by what you do just out here,” Lindsay coach Brett Kendig said. “This started back when you guys were in fifth and sixth grade when there was no rec program, no nothing for girls.”

Kendig, who wasn’t yet the Cardinals’ softball coach, joined several other parents in getting 18 girls practicing together. Within a year, Lindsay had a rec youth softball team.

“I go, ‘Everything you’ve done for the last six years is what’s led to this,’” he said.

Six years later, this group has been part of three playoff teams (softball, basketball and volleyball) and two league titles in their senior year — they shared the ESL volleyball crown with Woodlake in the fall.

“It’s definitely nice to finish your senior year with a second league championship,” Manning said. “We’re making the girls’ programs stand out more. That’s nice because it’s normally not about girls’ athletics (at Lindsay).”

The 2009 softball team’s journey began in the first round of last season’s Valley playoffs when then Lindsay pushed eventual Division IV runner-up Immanuel to the brink. 

The Eagles, behind a 21-strikeout day from Liz Isaak, outlasted the Cardinals 4-1 in eight innings, but that set the table for what Kendig believed could be a special season.

“I had no doubt the we could be league champions when the season started,” Kendig said. “I think our girls knew right there they had a solid team. There was no reason why we shouldn’t be where we are today.”

After three losses in April’s Fowler Easter Classic, the Cardinals were 10-7 but three main factors propelled them to where they are now.

Dedication 

The past three years, the Cardinals did not soar beyond .500, making the playoffs only once. 

Manning noticed a significant difference between those teams’ drive to succeed in softball and this one’s.

“I had a lot of fun my freshman year and even my other years but there wasn’t a whole lot of ‘Let’s go get ‘em.’ (Those teams) didn’t really have a good, competitive attitude,” she said. “Now, we have an attitude that we’re gonna win no matter what.  

“It goes back to having passion: to want to win. To want to be out here. People say winning isn’t everything, but it is.”  

They had practice at forming unity throughout the entire school year with the majority of the diamond starters playing together on the volleyball and basketball courts. 

But Manning, senior catcher Maricela Villarreal and senior first baseman Nicole Bolanos got a head start in their time with the Porterville Magic last summer. 

They played in tournaments in Salinas and San Jose, getting looks at the kind of pitching the ESL couldn’t provide. They also developed a swagger to boot.

“Our league, the pitching is not real strong,” Kendig said. “We saw quality pitching (last summer). They have a confidence now, they got a little giddyup in their step. When you play travel ball, you gain just a little attitude that all athletes need to have.”

Strikeout force 

The ESL featured at least one high-level hurler. Manning posted two no-hitters and finished the regular season with a 17-5 record.

She fanned 159 batters, leading the Orange Belt and shattering her previous season-best of 85. 

But what impressed Kendig was her strikeout-to-walk ratio. In 2007, she had 24 more walks than strikeouts and last season, she improved to the tune of 85 strikeouts and 67 walks. 

Her walks spiked to 102, but don’t come close to her whiff total.

Kendig credits Manning’s walk improvement to getting ahead of batters by putting the ball in places hitters don’t like.

“We can win if she hits her spots. It’s that simple,” Kendig said. “I can tell the weaknesses of hitters and if I can find that weakness and get her to throw to that weakness, we’re in a win-win situation. The last couple of years, I’d see that but I couldn’t get Cass to put the ball in that spot. Now, she’s putting it in that spot and she’s seeing how the defense will be in the right spot.”

During this 11-game run, however, Manning hasn’t relied on Kendig’s placement tips for the most part.

“That’s something that’s been a beautiful thing this year. Maricela and Cass in the last, probably, 10 games I haven’t called any pitches. They’ve done it all on their own. She knows that if she feels really confident that she can get the pitch to get a girl out, she’ll signal the catcher herself.”

It’s gotten to the point where Manning can tell how to attack hitters just by looking at them.

“I read the batter a lot on how they stand,” she said. “That’s something my pitching coach taught me. Then I’ll tell Mari (Villarreal) ‘Oh let’s bring her inside. Coach tells us sometimes certain girls are hard to pitch inside and we’ll remember it the next time around.”

Extra-base power 

Just one Cardinal posted a batting average over .320 last season: Bolanos. 

This year, seven (Manning: .388, Renee Alvarado: .383, Rachel Marie Ruiz: .378, Kelcey Knutson: .361, Bolanos: .344, Villarreal: .340 and Vanessa Gutierrez: .338) have eclipsed that mark.

Bolanos (14) and Knutson (12) have 26 doubles between them while Manning has reached third base three times.

The batting numbers are high, but Lindsay’s team on-base percentage (.464) is what Kendig believes is the key to the run support Manning gets consistently.

“No. 1 is they’ve learned what getting their pitch is,” he said. “They are the most patient group of hitters. They lay off pitches. It might be a strike but it’s not a good pitch to hit.”

Against Corcoran, the Cards walked 13 times in a 12-2 thrashing which was punctuated by a Bolanos double off the left-field fence. 

They put more than 10 runs on the board 12 times and ended a game after five innings on nine different occasions.

Villarreal also credits the high run totals to the dugout’s increased attention on every at-bat.

“We watch each other, like what we do wrong,” Villarreal said. “If I’m dipping, they’ll tell me ‘Keep your hands up’ and I’ll keep my hands up. We just help each other out.”

Lindsay’s dream season enters crunch time now. 

The Cardinals are the No. 4 seed but host fifth-seeded Caruthers, which pasted them 11-3 in April.

Kendig doesn’t think his team’s season has to end until next week, but would like to see his team eliminate the errors. Mistakes haven’t cost his team any crucial games this year, but they might against tougher competition.

“I think we can win the whole thing,” he said. “We’ve gotta cut down on our errors. If we have a negative, it is we make too many errors. When we do make errors, it hasn’t been in crunch time. We seem to step up and make plays when the game’s on the line.”

Lindsay will likely face a pitcher that is stronger than the likes its league offers as well.

“It’s a disadvantage that we don’t see a lot of quality pitching before we go to the playoffs,” Kendig said. “It’s no different than any other sport. You play basketball and you go up against guys 6’8, 6’9; you didn’t see them all year. You’ve gotta make adjustments.”

The Cardinals spent the year adjusting to being contenders. So the Blue Raiders will have to contend with perhaps the bracket’s most confident team.

“We’ve gotten used to winning,” senior shortstop Julia Lopez said. “We kind of don’t know anything else.”

Rollin’ into the playoffs

No. 4 Lindsay’s leaders heading into Division V bracket

Batting average: Cassie Manning - .388

Doubles: Nicole Bolanos - 14

RBIs: Kelcey Knutson - 32

On-base percentage: Vanessa Gutierrez - .561

Wins: Manning - 17

Strikeouts: Manning - 159