Following a nine-run loss the day before, Orestimba High baseball team were swept in a series for second time this season after an 11-1 road loss to Hilmar High on Thursday.
The Warriors have now lost four straight games and fell to 8-8 overall and 2-4 in Trans-Valley League play. Meanwhile, the Yellowjackets picked up its only first series win and sweep of the season and improved to 7-6 overall and 2-4 against league opponents after starting its TVL slate fourth consecutive losses.
Throughout the series, Orestimba had no answer to Hilmar’s batters as runs were persistent against Warriors’ defense. In the series closer, six different players recorded an RBI.
Senior Jacob Sward found his rhythm on home plate against Orestimba with five RBIs, two runs, three triples and three doubles through two games. Following him was senior Junior Solis, who went 3 for 4 for three runs and a double in Thursday’s closer.
Warriors head coach Louie Dominguez credited the Yellowjackets’ hitters for batting timely hits against Orestimba’s pitchers and bringing their runners to home plate to score.
“When they have runners on the bases, it makes it hard to control what they’re able to do with the plate … and when you throw strikes to their good hitters, they hit the ball far,” Dominguez said. “That’s been pretty consistent with what they showed us.”
Hilmar opened up with the first lead of the game after Sward scored a run following a hit from junior Drake DeCosta, 1-0.
From that point on, the Yellowjackets brought home five more runners to lead by six runs entering the fourth inning. Orestimba scored their only run of the game at the top of the fourth to trail, 6-1.
Hilmar responded back with two runs at the bottom of the inning to increase their lead to seven. The Yellowjackets capped off the series with three more runs through the final two innings to win by 10 runs.
Orestimba will be back in Hilmar for a matchup in the Hilmar Easter Tournament against former Southern Athletic League rival Mariposa County High School (10-6) on Monday at 12:30 p.m. The Grizzlies are tied with Le Grand High School for first place in the SAL standings at 8-0.
With spring break approaching, Dominguez said he hopes the team can “get back on the good juju’ with the time off from school.
“It’s nice to get away from school. It's a nice way to just play baseball,” he said. “We’re down to nine games [left], so let’s see how hard we want to finish this [season] out.”
