The Turlock High varsity baseball team, the defending Central California Athletic League champions, now has a two-game cushion in the standings following an eventful Monday slate of games.
Hosting their crosstown rival Pitman at Mark de la Motte Field, the Bulldogs won a pitcher’s duel, 3-1, for their seventh straight victory and to improve to 9-1 against conference opponents. Meanwhile the Pride dropped their fifth straight and fell to 3-7 in league play. Over in Modesto, Gregori lost to Downey by a 12-4 score, leaving the two programs tied in second place with matching 7-3 records.
All of the offense for Turlock came in the first inning. Senior Josh Ramirez led things off with a single, and after advancing to second on a walk by Jaron Rocha, scored on a single by sophomore Mason Hackler. Rocha and Hackler then came around to score following a defensive error on a sharp grounder by senior Jadon Boyer.
From that point on, Pitman starting pitcher Noah Cervantes was able to shut down the Turlock offense, allowing just one hit the remainder of his six-inning complete game outing while striking out seven.
“Noah did a heck of a job,” said Pitman skipper Andy Walker. “He faced some adversity last week, struggled with some things, and rebounded today and against those crosstown rivals, so I was proud of him. At the end of the day, that's what this is all about, right? Is learning and applying the things you learn and answering back. And he answered back. He threw a heck of a game today and, unfortunately, we couldn't support him.”
As Walker alluded to, the Pitman offense was unable to give their ace the run support he needed, as Cervantes was met with a similarly dominant performance from Rocha.
Rocha, also a senior, cruised through the first two innings before surrendering the only Pitman run of the afternoon in the third inning, when junior Jackson Way — who led off the frame with a double — came speeding around the bases to score on a single by senior Nathan Cervantes. It was one of a game-high three hits by the slugger.
The Pride continued to occupy the basepaths. They had a pair of runners in scoring position in the fourth frame before Rocha escaped with a strikeout and a groundout. He faced similar adversity in the sixth, surrendering a pair of walks and a single to load the bases, but found himself screaming in jubilation after earning another strikeout on a well-placed changeup.
“My changeup was working good, and I knew I could paint the outside corner,” Rocha explained. “I knew (the home plate umpire) was calling it that way, so I went with it.
“I played with a couple of them growing up, childhood friends and whatnot,” Rocha said of the Pitman lineup. “Having (this performance) against them when we’re older and just being able to talk about that, there was some extra motivation, just going into this game knowing I was gonna throw strikes and having that confidence in myself.”
Rocha was one batter away from a complete game of his own, but Turlock head coach Mike Souza opted to take him before he approached the 110-pitch limit. He finished with the one earned run on eight hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. Earning the save with a four-pitch strikeout was Ramirez.
“Jaron still had four pitches left, but why just burn him for the four pitches?” I know Josh can come in and throw, and I need to get Josh some work too,” Souza said. “I know we have two more games (this week), but I gotta try to get these other guys in before the playoffs. I told him that I need his legs and arm for the playoffs. I don't want to burn them too quick. That’s where coaches come in, where it’s cool for a kid to finish a game, but I need you down the road for the team… He’ll understand that, but I don’t blame him for wanting to be out there. But I love seeing that out of guys. He’s a competitor and the team feeds off that fire he has.”
The second game of the series is Wednesday at 4 p.m. from the Pitman High campus. They’ll wrap the series on Friday at 4 p.m. back at the de la Motte ballfield.
Walker feels as if his team is close to breaking out of their hitting slump with runners in scoring position to snap their losing streak and remain in the postseason hunt. Souza, with his squad now with a widened lead atop the CCAL standings, hopes that the wins keep on coming to close out the regular season.
“Just keep stringing together wins and get the momentum going,” Souza said.
