‘We have our mojo back’: Gregori secures key CCAL baseball series win over Pitman
The Gregori High baseball team was riding a high entering the final stretch of the 2026 campaign.
The Jaguars felt they had a good showing in a tournament in Atwater, posting a pair of shutout wins including a 1-0 victory in their last game of the showcase over Patterson. They scored 43 total runs in a series sweep against Modesto and entered the week with some momentum.
Then they got punched in the mouth. A crushing 19-6 loss to Pitman in Monday’s best-of-three series opener brought the Jaguars back to earth. They knew they needed to respond.
This late in the season, each series matters. Entering the week, the Pride were comfortably the Central California Athletic League’s second seed behind Turlock. Gregori, the fourth-place team, was fighting to keep its playoff hopes alive.
The Jaguars earned a 4-2 win Wednesday, setting up a must-win Game 3 at home Friday.
“After our win on Wednesday, we wanted to come in here and take a series,” freshman catcher Chase Hardin said. “We knew we lost one on Monday, we took one on Wednesday, let’s take another series. We want to win as much as we can, and we’re gonna do what it takes to win a series like that.”
The Jaguars’ offense was on from the jump, posting seven runs in the first inning and adding key points late in the contest as they secured a 13-8 win, taking the season series and keeping their shot at a postseason berth alive.
“Getting this and winning two (games) was huge because now we have our mojo back,” pitcher Deegan Beland said. “We’ve got to keep going. We can’t stop.”
Gregori’s offense produces timely runs
Pitman struck first when leadoff hitter Nolan Walker singled, advanced two bases then scored from third on a wild pitch. The Pride scored again in the top of the opening inning when Jesse Gutierrez lined an RBI single to right field.
Jaguars starting pitcher Sebastian Joseph settled in after a shaky start. Over the next three innings, he allowed just one run and he finished off a six-strikeout, six-hit effort, giving up just one earned run. He pitched 4.1 total innings before a change in the fifth inning.
The moment was not too big for Gregori’s offense.
Three Jaguars tallied multiple RBI, led by Joseph and Hardin, who drove in three runs, and Jivoni Pando-Dumolt, who knocked in a pair of Jaguars. Four other Gregori batters added an RBI apiece.
Gregori answered Pitman’s two runs in the top of the first with an impressive seven-run bottom half and added one run in the bottom of the fourth, taking an 8-3 lead into the fifth.
Pitman did not go away, taking advantage of Gregori errors and producing a two-run double, a two-run triple and a sacrifice fly in three straight at bats as part of a two-out rally to tie the game at eight runs apiece, forcing the Jaguars’ pitching change.
When Beland entered in a tie ball game in relief, he got the final out of the inning in four pitches.
The Jaguars answered with a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning. With the bases loaded, Pando-Dumolt walked, scoring a run. Dustin McLain drove in two with a single, and Hardin added an RBI double to give Gregori a 12-8 lead.
Beland did not allow a run in his 2.2 innings of work. He gave up just two hits and struck out four.
“Coming in, I just wanted to throw strikes and keep my team in the dugout as long as possible,” he said. “Let us get our AB’s in and do what we have to do on offense. I had to do what I had to do for them to do what they have to do.”
CCAL Standings are still a tossup
In Modesto, a struggle for the final automatic playoff bid won’t include a head-to-head matchup. Instead, Enochs and Gregori will be watching the scores attentively on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Gregori got some help in the league standings when Downey took the final game of its three-game set against the Eagles, 3-2. That combined with Gregori’s win means both teams are 6-6. However, Enochs won the season series 2-1. The Eagles play their final three-game series against Modesto, while the Jaguars have a three-game set against Downey.
“For me, playing spoiler is when you don’t have anything to look forward to when the regular season ends,” Gregori coach James Davis said. “For us, I think we’re a good enough team to qualify for playoffs. Hopefully, we’ve proved that, but we still have three games left. There’s a lot to be decided.”
Friday’s results in Modesto, combined with a 13-1 Turlock High win over Modesto High, cue up another rivalry with serious league implications. Turlock is chasing a CCAL three-peat, while Pitman is looking for its first title since 2023. As two of the top three seeds in the league, each has secured a spot in the postseason.
The Bulldogs are 11-1 in league play and the Pride are 9-3.
In the crosstown rivalry series, the Pride host Games 1 and 3 on April 27 and May 1, and the Bulldogs host Game 2 on April 29. In each of the past four seasons, the winner of this series was crowned the league champion. In 2025 and 2024, the Bulldogs swept en route to back-to-back titles. In 2023, Pitman won 2-1 and won the league, and in 2022, the title was Turlock’s along with a 2-1 series win.
