Hughson dominates deciding Game 3 to advance to D-V section final
It was a win three years in the making, so members of the Hughson baseball team emptied the cooler on anyone they found.
Players doused Andrew Fisher with water after he walked in the final run. Minutes later, head coach Charly Garza was next, a cooler full of lemon-lime Gatorade dumped on the hat that covered his recently dyed blond hair.
They filled the cooler up two, three, four times, chasing down their next victims. Some asked for the water. Most did not.
The second-ranked Huskies (27-6) finally did it. They advanced past the Sac-Joaquin Section semifinals — where their season ended the previous two years — with a 12-2 win in Game 3 of the Division V semis against No. 3 Wheatland (18-10-1).
Seniors JC Lupercio, Max Mankins and Carlos Guizar went to the section title game as freshmen but fell to Bradshaw Christian. The next two seasons, they fought to get back but were bounced one round short, getting swept in 2023 and 2024 by Sutter.
“After the last two years falling short in this exact spot, man, I’m just so grateful we’re going to the section championship,” Lupercio said.
Everything clicked for the Huskies this playoff run. Their offense averaged over nine runs a game and the defense allowed just four total runs in its four wins with two shutouts. Bryce McDaniel earned two starts during the postseason and went 2-0 with one shutout. Mankins earned a shutout win with 10 strikeouts against Venture Academy, and Benji Ocegueda had one relief appearance and started Thursday’s series clinching game. He struck out eight batters and allowed just four hits and two runs. Isaac Lupercio entered in relief and pitched two no-hit innings with three strikeouts.
“It just shows how deep of a team we have,” JC Lupercio said. “It shows how connected we are and how bad we want to win.”
Beau Blake and Andrew Fisher were the team’s driving force Thursday, producing two hits and driving in four runs each. Fisher also doubled and drew three walks. With the game tied at 2-2 and the bases loaded, Fisher roped his first double to left field, scoring Karsen Moore and Ocegueda to give the Huskies the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Blake came up in the next at bat, driving in Lawson Aviles. The Huskies scored five total runs in the inning and never trailed the rest of the game.
Fisher finished off the mercy-rule win in the bottom of the sixth inning, drawing a walk with the bases loaded to cap a three-run frame and put the Huskies ahead by 10 runs.
“It was amazing,” said Blake, a .510 hitter on the season who is No. 12 in the state in home runs and No. 10 in RBI. “Losing yesterday really sucked. We didn’t play how we do. But we knew today it was win or go home and we just had to get it done.”
But they weren’t the only ones to produce. Aviles scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the third inning and Ocegueda finished with a pair of doubles. Aviles and Isaac Lupercio each added two hits and Guizar, Moore and Mankins each drew one walk.
The Huskies bounced back after their offense struggled to produce runs in Game 2. They scored just three runs, their lowest-scoring game since losing to Oakdale in the Mark Dickens Tournament. But Garza knew the the players would respond because he saw them do it earlier this season, after they suffered their first Trans-Valley League loss to Hilmar, bouncing back to clinch the league title with an 8-4 win.
“Yesterday when we lost, we basically talked about the game for 30 seconds, then we were done,” Garza said of the playoff loss. “I said, ‘We’re done, we’re moving on. No one’s even going to talk about it. We’re going to do what we’ve been doing the past two weeks, tomorrow.’ And they did.”
When the Huskies take on No. 1 Lincoln next week in the D-V title game, they’ll be playing for more than just a blue banner.
Both teams will also battle to be the lone SJS Division V representative in the CIF Northern California Regional playoffs that begin the week after the section championships are played. While in Divisions I through III, the section champion and runner-up advance to the regional tournament, in D-IV through D-VII, just the section champion advances, adding more pressure to an already important game.
“They’ve knocked on the door so many times and I just said, ‘Give yourselves a chance. You deserve to be there for all the work you put in,’” Garza said.
The Fighting Zebras played the Huskies’ semifinals opponent, Wheatland, twice in Pioneer Valley League play, splitting results in their two games, winning the first 7-0 and losing the second 3-2.
Hughson has been to four section title games and never won a blue banner. Though there is a lot on the line, the Huskies are going to approach it like any other game.
“We want to make history,” Blake said. “We want to win the first section title and this group of guys is a special group and I think we can do it. You’ve just got to stay within yourself and don’t let the moment get too big.”
