Turlock eliminates rival Pitman from CCC baseball title chase

Tate Soderstrom insisted he wasn’t nervous.

Turlock High School’s junior right-hander inherited a dire situation, entering the game with two runners on in the bottom of the seventh inning to relieve Blaine Weber, whose six-run lead over crosstown rival Pitman had been diminished to two.

Soderstrom proceeded to plunk the first batter he faced to load the bases – putting the tying run 180 feet away – and that didn’t faze him either.

Soderstrom, who has committed to play at Arizona, drawing interest from the Wildcats with a sweet left-handed swing and his play at first base, eventually induced a game-ending pop-up to first that secured a 9-7 Central California Conference victory that eliminated the Pride from league-title contention.

“I wasn’t nervous at all,” said Soderstrom, whose dad, Steve, was selected No. 6 overall by the San Francisco Giants in the first round of the 1993 draft. “I just decided I’ve got to come back right here and get the first strike, and I was able to do it. Once you get that first strike, it’s big.”

The win improved the Bulldogs’ CCC record to 10-2 and sets up a winner-take-all showdown with Buhach Colony, also 10-2 in league. The three-game series is May 3, 5 and 10 with the first in Atwater and the final two in Turlock.

“Tate hasn’t done much pitching in relief,” said Bulldogs coach Mark de la Motte, who thought his team was a bit tight during Thursday’s 7-2 loss at Turlock. “But the way he throws sidearm, it gives them a different look.

“And then he plunks the first guy. But you know what? There’s nobody I’d rather have out there. He’s really a competitor, and he’s going to give you everything he’s got. And he did.”

Pitman needed to sweep Turlock and have Atwater take one game from Buhach Colony. Neither happened Friday, but for about 10 minutes in the seventh inning, it looked like half of the equation might work out.

Trailing 9-3 with three outs left, Pitman halved the deficit on one swing when Dylan Roberts jacked a three-run homer down the right-field line.

“I thought that it really pumped the team up,” said Roberts (2 for 4, 4 RBIs), who raised his average to .333. “We made it a two-run game, had the bases loaded, easily could’ve tied the game with one swing of the bat. A couple of things didn’t go our way, but we played hard.”

The Pride (15-9, 7-5), which holds a one-game lead over fourth-place Merced, led off the seventh with its 3-4-5 hitters. Had it not been for a stellar defensive play an inning earlier by ’Dogs second baseman Cody Justus, the meat of Pitman’s order would have batted with two runners on base.

With one out and leadoff man Colton Evans having reached on a bunt single, Ben Lascano drilled a pitch toward the gap in right-center. But Justus dived to his right and gloved Lascano’s hot shot for the second out, then threw back to Soderstrom, who stomped on first base for the third out.

Turlock jumped on Pitman for three runs in the first, the big hit a run-scoring triple by catcher Brandon Booz. It was just what a team that played tight the day before needed most.

“That was huge to come right out and put the bat on the ball,” de la Motte said. “We were having a hard time making contact the last two games. … It definitely relaxed us a little bit.”　

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 9:26 PM with the headline "Turlock eliminates rival Pitman from CCC baseball title chase."