‘The win here was huge’: Blom, Modesto look for momentum after Windemuth Tournament title
“Let’s ball.”
That was the simple yet powerful message circulating through the Modesto High baseball group chat the day before Thursday’s 52nd Windemuth Tournament championship against Ripon Christian.
The final word came from the Panthers’ emotional leader, senior Heston Blom.
“(Assistant) coach (Matthew) Farias sent in the group chat ‘You guys know who’s got the rock tomorrow. Let’s go out and win a championship,’” Blom said. “I responded back with, ‘Let’s ball.’ I said let’s go and everybody liked my message and we were all like all right, let’s ball.”
Panthers coach David Tanaka calls Blom the team’s “heartbeat.”
His production speaks for itself. He is among the team leaders in batting average (.432), runs (7), hits (16), RBIs (8) and doubles (7).
“If the team is a little too high, he’s able to bring them down, when the team’s a little too low, he’s able to bring them up.” Tanaka said.
Blom took the mound for the Panthers on Thursday afternoon, pitching his third complete game this season. He gave up six hits and struck out eight, leading the team to a 6-3 win over the Knights to capture the tournament title.
“Heston has been lights out almost every game this year,” Tanaka said. “Any time he pitches he just gives us a chance to win. We knew that with him on the mound, we were going to be put in a good position.”
The Panthers only struck out five times and their six runs came on six hits and seven drawn walks. After falling behind 2-1, they pushed across three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead and added a run in the fifth and sixth to seal the win.
“Just scrappy today,” Tanaka said. “We worked the count, got a couple of base hits. We’ve really talked about it as a team, there’s not really a secret formula to winning. It’s getting guys on, putting pressure on the defense to make plays, advancing runners and getting them in and I think we did a good job of that today.”
Modesto started the season 4-1, but struggled in Central California Athletic League play.
The Panthers went 3-1 in the midseason competition, correcting an eight-game skid that has resulted in an 0-8 CCAL record. Winning the prestigious Windemuth Tournament comes at the right time.
“For the past three years, it’s been really rough when we’ve played in the tournament,” Blom said. “To just come out this year and shock other teams, it meant a lot.”
Blom is a three-year varsity baseball player and so far he and his class have yet to win a CCAL game.
“The improvement from last year was where I felt this year would be a lot better,” he said. “We had a couple of close games — 3-1 games, 1-0 games — we were right there. So I feel confident we can at least compete, if not take two out of three.”
CCAL opponents play three-game series and the Panthers will be back at it Monday, hosting fifth-place Enochs. Blom will have just three more games to secure his first varsity league victory and is encouraged by what he saw from the Panthers during the tournament.
“It meant a lot to see everybody rally,” he said. “I haven’t seen my team have that much energy in a long time. For them to come out and just go at it, it was really good, especially for me being a senior getting to go out the right way.”
You could not tell from his performance Thursday, but Blom prefers pitching on the road. His two prior wins came in complete games on the road against Central Valley and Merced.
He is hoping the momentum from their three tournament wins will give them extra motivation heading into their final two series.
“Getting the win here was huge,” he said. “I’ve always been nervous about pitching at home. I’ve never liked it. I feel like all eyes are on me from the whole school. I’m always like, man, I can’t mess up now the whole school is watching. So I’ve always been really nervous but going forward I’m ready. I’m so stoked for Monday.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2023 at 12:04 PM.
