Turlock outlasts Atwater’s Buhach Colony for CCC baseball title

Turlock High School scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on for a 5-2 Central California Conference baseball victory over Buhach Colony that clinched the league title for the Bulldogs for the third time in the last four seasons.

The Bulldogs, 16-10 overall and 12-2 in the CCC, and Thunder (13-13, 10-4) entered the final three-game set of the season tied atop the conference standings, making this a winner-take-all series.

After Turlock’s 12-5 win on Tuesday in Atwater, BC was faced with having to beat the Bulldogs twice in a row in Turlock.

Tuesday’s series finale is now nothing more than a tuneup for the postseason.

With the score tied 2-2 in the sixth – Turlock’s Trevor Santiago doubled in Eli Williams in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score – BC cleanup hitter Christian Witt drilled the ball over the head of center fielder Jon Temple for a leadoff triple.

“I knew I had to trust my defense,” said Turlock pitcher Landon Curtis.

The senior right-hander fanned Kory Woods for the first out, then got R.J. Garcia to hit a grounder to second.

Senior second baseman Cody Justus fielded the ball cleanly and never hesitated with his throw to the plate to gun down Witt by an eyelash.

It was the play of the game.

“I wanted that ball hit to me,” said Justus, who made a diving catch of a line drive to start a double play last week in a key matchup against rival Pitman. “I knew I was going home with it. It was a routine play; I didn’t think about it.”

Justus may have seen it as routine. It wasn’t. The ball had to be fielded cleanly, which it was, and it required a perfect throw, which Justus delivered.

“A bang-bang play at the plate,” said BC coach Greg Wakefield, a member of Turlock head coach Mark de la Motte’s staff when de la Motte headed the program at Stanislaus State. “That’s just baseball.”

Working around the triple ignited the Bulldogs, who scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to take control.

Tate Soderstrom stroked a leadoff single to right and Temple walked to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Chris Steeley gave Turlock the lead, plating Soderstrom with a double to left-center. Temple scored on Justus’ squeeze bunt and Steeley would race home on a sacrifice by Mitch Pryschuk.

Curtis hit the first batter he faced in the seventh, recorded two outs, and then loaded the bases.

“It was definitely nerve-wracking,” said Curtis. “My blood pressure went up a little bit, but I just told myself to throw strikes.”

If Curtis was sweating it out, it wasn’t apparent.

“He’s so calm and cool,” said de la Motte. “I was talking to the other pitchers in the dugout and I pointed it out: ‘See how calm and cool he is?’ ”

Witt, who launched the ball 380 feet to dead center in his previous at-bat against Curtis, stepped into the batter’s box as the potential go-ahead run.

The count went full and Witt fouled off a pitch before Curtis fanned him to set off a wild celebration at the pitcher’s mound.

This story was originally published May 5, 2016 at 7:27 PM with the headline "Turlock outlasts Atwater’s Buhach Colony for CCC baseball title."