Oakdale, Enochs battle for tournament championship in nonleague rematch
Oakdale and Enochs faced off Thursday in the championship of the Mark Dickens Tournament, in a rematch of a nonleague nail-biter.
Oakdale won the Feb. 27 game 5-4 in the season-opening March Madness Tournament. University of Georgia signee Landon Schutte recorded three doubles and tallied four RBI.
Thursday, the two met again, and the Mustangs extended their advantage in the nonleague season series with a 6-1 win.
Schutte led all Mustangs with three hits, with one double and an RBI. Peyton Wallace also had a multi-hit game, and five players each had a hit apiece. Eric Velazquez recorded Oakdale’s other RBI.
Enochs scored first in the top of the third inning, and Oakdale answered with a run. The Mustangs broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs without recording an RBI. With one out, Kane Gray scored on a throwing error and Griffin Costa, Peyton Wallace and Schutte scored on wild pitches to take a 5-1 lead. They added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.
Velazquez pitched four innings with seven strikeouts and allowed a run. Rex Silva and Crew Baza also pitched in the championship game and struck out four and three batters, respectively.
For Enochs, Brooks Opsahl had two of the four hits with the team’s only extra base hit, a double, and Bryan Delgado and Ethan Griepp added a base hit apiece.
Top 3 CIF-SJS matchup rescheduled
The highly anticipated top 3 matchup between Central Catholic and St. Mary’s that was originally scheduled for Saturday was postponed due to rain. The game was to be played at John Thurman Field under the lights at 6 p.m., setting the stage for some of the top players in California.
The game still will happen. Central Catholic athletic director Billy Hylla confirmed with The Bee on Saturday that the two powerhouses will face off on Tuesday, April 21, at 4 p.m. at Thurman Field.
The Raiders’ roster features Sacramento State signee Kayden McHenry, Cal Poly SLO signee Max Medina, last year’s VOL Pitcher of the Year, Fresno State football signee Chase Perino, and Cole Medina, Jacob Kiesel, Broden Thomas and Hudson Walker, who were all first-team VOL players in 2025.
Central Catholic is the third-ranked team in the MaxPreps Sac-Joaquin Section rankings as of Monday and St. Mary’s is the section’s top team.
Career games lead Ceres to tournament opener
Ceres beat Denair 8-4 on the opening day of last week’s 55th Dick Windemuth Tournament, thanks in large part to a career day from senior shortstop Ashton Urena. Urena went 3-for-3 with two inside-the-park home runs, drove in three RBI, scored three runs and stole a base.
He hit the first home run into the right-center-field gap. The ball bounced a few times before hitting the wall. The second home run was a towering shot that would have gone over any high school fence. The ball hit the wall before it bounced and was scooped up by a Coyote outfielder.
Over the four-game tournament, Urena went 6-for-14 with a double, two home runs and an impressive seven RBI.
Freshman pitcher Allan Valencia shined in the Bulldogs’ tournament opener, pitching 5.1 innings and giving up just three hits, one double and one earned run. He posted a career-high 13 strikeouts, the most of any Ceres High pitcher this season.
He is one of three Bulldogs pitchers to record at least 10 strikeouts in a game. Urena fanned 10 in a nonleague game against Sonora, and sophomore Isaiah Reyes struck out 12 in a six-inning, complete-game Western Athletic Conference win over Johansen.
Turlock beats Manteca in non-league upset
Turlock jumped two spots in the MaxPreps Sac-Joaquin Section rankings over the past few weeks thanks to strong showings in nonleague action. The Bulldogs, who sit atop the Central California Athletic League standings, pulled off an upset over a top 10 team in the rankings last week over Manteca. At the time of the matchup, Turlock was No. 25 and the Buffaloes were No. 8 and the Bulldogs took home a 14-8 win.
Manteca looked like it would roll early, leading 8-2 after three innings. The Bulldogs did not allow a run for the rest of the game defensively. On offense, they scored twice in the fourth, piled on seven in the fifth and added three in the sixth to complete the comeback.
Four Turlock players had two RBI and two more drove in one run apiece. Turlock had 12 hits led by a Braydon Keyler double and an Adam Torres triple. Torres had a team-high three hits and was one of three Bulldogs to have a multi-hit game. Junior Cameron Henard pitched five shutout innings with nine strikeouts.
Turlock picks up CCAL play this week with a Monday-Wednesday-Friday series against Enochs.
Ripon Christian baseball sweeps rivals in league play
The Ripon rivalry took center stage as Ripon and Ripon Christian crossed the street one time each for a two-game series to start April. The Knights rebounded from a series split against Escalon to win two games against the rival school by two total runs.
Ripon Christian won the first game 5-4, and won 4-3 the next day. In the series opener April 1, the Knights jumped out to a 5-2 lead after the first three and a half innings. Ripon scored once in the bottom of the fourth and sixth innings, but the Knights held on for their sixth Trans-Valley League win.
They ended the series in dramatic fashion, walking off Ripon in the seventh inning. Neither team scored for the first four frames until Ripon broke the seal in the top of the fifth. The Knights countered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and Ripon tied the game with two runs in the top of the seventh. The Knights’ first batter of the final frame struck out, but Ethan Vander Plaats and Jackson Howell doubled in back-to-back at bats. The next batter, Talen Tameling, singled, driving in Vander Plaats to win the game.
Since the victory, the Knights have kept rolling. They have won eight straight games, including taking four wins in the Dick Windemuth Tournament at John Thurman Field.
