Tracy ends Enochs’ baseball season

For three innings of Thursday’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South baseball game between Enochs and Tracy high schools, the Eagles had reason to believe they were headed toward an upset victory.

It would’ve been the second this week for No. 12 Enochs, which blasted No. 5 McNair 11-3 on Monday in Stockton.

But things fell apart in the fourth, when the Bulldogs scored five runs on their way to a 7-3 victory at Klein Family Field on the campus of the University of the Pacific.

“The cards were stacked against us,” said Eagles coach Chris Butterfield, who had to dismiss several players from the team earlier this season for disciplinary reasons. “No one picked us to be here. Nobody picked us to beat McNair. We’ve had a tough, long year, but our kids have persevered through some tough times.

“Everyone wrote us off and I'm just glad we didn’t write ourselves off.”

Junior Jordan Davidson, who had an RBI double in the first, delivered a run-producing triple in the sixth to make it 7-2. Davidson later scooted home on a wild pitch for the final margin.

Chris Butterfield singled for Enochs’ only other hit.

“Jordan is a strong hitter and a tough competitor,” said Butterfield, whose team finished the season 10-17, taking the Modesto Metro Conference’s third playoff seed. “He just squared two balls up. He makes good contact very often, so he has an idea at the plate. He was big for us.”

Thursday’s game marked the third time that the Eagles and Bulldogs have met this season. Tracy blanked Enochs 6-0 on Feb. 28, just the Eagles’ second game of the season, and then won in a rout, 13-5, on March 24 in Modesto.

“We knew Tracy was a good ball club,” said Butterfield. “And for a little while there, we had a chance. It just kind of got away from us.”

No. 4 Tracy (20-9) advances to take on top-seeded St. Mary’s (18-11), its rival from the Tri-City Athletic League, on Monday at 7 p.m. at UOP as the tournament moves to the double-elimination stage.

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Tracy ends Enochs’ baseball season."