CCC awards: Temple, Weber, Evans shine bright on diamond

The Central California Conference MVP award will remain in the city of Turlock for one more year.

It will, however, change addresses.

Turlock slugger Jon Temple was named the MVP by a vote of the conference’s coaches after guiding the Bulldogs to a conference championship and berth in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South tournament.

Turlock went 13-2 in conference play and earned the title outright by sweeping Buhach Colony in the final series of the regular season.

Temple, who has committed to Utah, was an offensive force.

He led the Bulldogs in nearly every major statistical category, including runs (28), hits (30), RBIs (32), triples (three) and home runs (five).

His home run and RBI totals, along with his slugging percentage (.736), were tops in the CCC.

He was second on the club in hitting with a .395 batting average – teammate and all-league first-team first baseman Tate Soderstrom hit an eye-popping .420 – and doubles with five. All-league first-team catcher Brandon Booz led Turlock with nine doubles.

Temple scored one of the Bulldogs’ two runs in a 5-2 season-ending loss to Tracy in the D-I South tournament. Tracy will represent the southern half of the section in the final round against Elk Grove.

Temple, Booz and Soderstrom were the cornerstones for a team that overachieved this spring in the eyes of head coach Mark de la Motte.

“I’m really proud of this team,” de la Motte told The Bee following the loss to Tracy. “They overachieved all year. The years our seniors had were not really expected. They came in, really, as role players and stepped up into starting roles.

“Temple and Booz and Soderstrom we knew, but Cody Justus, Blaine Weber and Landon Curtis, for sure, came out and pitched great. And Peyton Dunseth, the quarterback on our football team, had a heck of a year.”

Most were rewarded at the year-end coaches meeting, too.

Weber was named the Pitcher of the Year, while Dunseth was a second-team selection in the outfield and Curtis an honorable mention selection.

Weber won a team-high eight games, finishing 8-1 with a 1.58 ERA. He completed six of the seven games he started and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 6-to-1.

Pitman senior Colton Evans garnered Offensive Player of the Year honors. Evans hit .412 in conference and tied for first in runs with 31, sharing that honor with teammate and second-team shortstop Matt Carrigg.

Evans also reached base 54.1 percent of the time and stole 12 bases, tied for second-most in the CCC.

One year after taking the conference championship and the MVP (Zach Wichman), the Pride tied for second at 10-5 with Buhach Colony. Pitman closed conference play by winning five of its last six games, including two of three against the Bulldogs.

Joining Soderstrom and Booz on the all-conference first team were: pitchers Nick Singer of Buhach Colony and Kyle Moniz of Merced; second baseman Jacob Alarcon of Merced; third baseman Tanner Pellissier of Merced; shortstop Ubaldo Romo of Buhach Colony; outfielders Logan Lemas of Buhach Colony, Caleb Lopez of Golden Valley and Josh May of Merced; designated hitter Logan Coe of Buhach Colony; and utility player Anthony Encalade of Pitman.

Joining Dunseth and Carrig on the second team were: pitchers Brett Hagen of Pitman and Damon Treadwell of Turlock; catcher Wyatt Pimentel of Atwater; first baseman Trevor Phillips of Merced; second baseman Mike Casso of Buhach Colony; third baseman Nick Jones of Pitman; outfielders Christian Witt of Buhach Colony and Mitch Pryschuk of Turlock; designated hitter Bryce West of Merced; and utility player Chris Steely of Turlock.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "CCC awards: Temple, Weber, Evans shine bright on diamond."