Everything seemed to come up in favor of the Turlock High baseball program this week.
After winning the first two games of their three-game set against Enochs, the Bulldogs were retroactively awarded another win on Thursday after the Central California Athletic League ruled on the controversial ending and restart of a March 21 game against Gregori. They rode that momentum on Friday to cap off a sweep of the Eagles with a 7-2 win and maintain their first-place CCAL standing.
“We’re obviously happy with how it turned out,” said Turlock head coach Mike Souza prior to Friday’s game. “It’s just unfortunate how it played out that way because it really did impact us for that second game (a 6-2 loss) because as I said then, it was such an emotional rollercoaster.
In the first leg of a doubleheader against the Jaguars on March 21, the Bulldogs had initially won 5-4, with the winning run coming on a controversial balk call. The Turlock dugout pleaded for a balk to be called on pitcher Dominic Hernandez, who they claim did do before he went into his windup. The umpires didn’t see it, and Hernandez went into motion. As he did, the Bulldog bench (including Souza) continued to yell for a balk, and Hernandez claimed he thought it was the umpires yelling which prompted him to stop. The umpires called the second balk, which was argued by Gregori skipper James Davis. Davis was ejected during his complaint, but not before he motioned for his team to play the rest of the game under protest.
Roughly 20 minutes after the presumed end of that game, the umpires called both teams back onto the field to pick up where they left off at the time of the balk in an attempt to reverse their call, and the Jaguars secured a walk-off win, 6-5, in 11 innings.
The CCAL said Thursday that restarting a game on the fly isn’t allowed.
After a review by a CCAL panel that included commissioner Ed Felt, president David Sanchez and vice president Justin Woodbridge, it was determined that the final score of Turlock 5, Gregori 4 would stand and be the official score of record for the CCAL varsity baseball standings. All of the player and game statistics recorded for the unauthorized restarted game’s 8th through 11th innings would also be expunged from any permanent records.
In a press release, the CCAL said that the umpiring crew from that day "did not have the authority to restart an officially completed game," even if it was being played under protest. CCAL protest procedures, as stated by bylaw “CCAL GSR 160- Competition Protests,” do not include any coach or umpire taking immediate action to rule on a game protest. Instead, all game protests must be in writing and submitted by the protesting school to the CCAL commissioner, CCAL president and all of the CCAL member schools’ principals.
“It appeared that the umpires had become aware of their earlier mistake and chose to restart the game from the moment the initial controversy occurred in an attempt to correct their mistake,” the release said.
Sac Joaquin Section Associate Commissioner Jason Feuerbach notified MaxPreps to change the final score of the game to Turlock 5 and Gregori 4, as well as correcting their win-loss records reflective of the decision, a welcome sign for the program, especially that game’s starting pitcher, Andrew Sevilla, who completed the game after punching out five.
There is no appeal beyond the CCAL panel, the release added.
Before any decision had been made, the Bulldogs kept chugging along, following up their 4-1 series-opening win against Enochs on Monday with a similarly dominant outing on the road against the Eagles on Wednesday, an 8-4 win. In the middle of it all was Sevilla again, who gave up three earned runs on seven hits in his complete game. As he struck out four on the mound, he also drove in a run on a third-inning triple. Also with RBI knocks on the afternoon were Josh Ramirez, Cooper Pacheco, Mason Hackler and Brady Faria, while another three runs were unearned.
Souza informed his team of the league’s ruling on Thursday, which he said has given them an extra spark. It showed in Friday’s finale at Mark de la Motte Field, with the first five batters reaching base.
It started with Ramirez leading off and driving the first pitch he saw to deep left center field for a double, Jaron Rocha walking, and both coming home on a Pacheco double to dead center. Pacheco chugged around the bases when Sevilla singled up the middle. Sevilla drove in Pacheco again in the third on a triple to extend their lead to 4-0. The Eagles cut the lead in half on a two-run single by Jaden Souza the next inning. Rocha provided insurance runs in the home half of the fourth, scoring Faria and Ramirez on another three-bagger. Faria took a pitch to the body with the bases loaded in the fifth to bring in the final run.
The fourth inning was the only real trouble starting pitcher Dutch Lawrence found himself in. In total, he surrendered six hits and walked three while striking out five.
The Bulldogs are now 5-1 against conference opponents and 7-5-1 overall, and are one game ahead of the Gregori in the standings. Next up on the schedule is a three-game set with a 1-11-1 Modesto team next week.
