As the regular season comes to a near end, the Orestimba High baseball team’s struggles still persist as the team were swept in their series against Ripon Christian High following a 14-4 loss on Thursday.
With its 11th consecutive loss, the Warriors fell to 8-15 overall and 2-8 in Trans-Valley League play. The Knights continued its momentum as the team sits firmly at the top of the TVL with its 14th straight win, and improved to 23-2 overall and 9-1 in league play.
While both teams joined the TVL last season, their success couldn’t be more different. As the Warriors hope to find its footing and establish an identity, the Knights’ success from the Southern Athletic League (SAL) has carried over in the TVL.
Orestimba head coach Louie Dominguez praised Ripon Christian’s ability to translate its play into a more competitive league like the TVL.
“It just shows that just because you come from the Southern [Athletic] League to the TVL doesn’t mean you can’t win,” he said. “We competed with Ripon Christian for a long time in the Southern [Athletic] League, and it was always good fun battles.”
Similar to what they’ve done all season, the Knights had no problem in bringing in runners to home plate as eight different players recorded an RBI in the series finale. Leading Ripon Christian was junior Tyler Wadlow, who went 1 for 3 with three RBIs, two runs and a homerun. Senior Maxx Anderson and sophomore Jack Strickland followed up with two RBIs each.
Additionally, the Knights found success in getting closer to home plate with six stolen bases.
Through the first three innings, Ripon Christian led 8-0, and it seemed that it was going to be a similar story to what happened the day before where Orestimba couldn't bring in its runners. However, it was anything but that as Orestimba scored four runs in the bottom of the third inning to cut its deficit in half going into the fourth.
Things eventually took a turn for the worse as the Warriors remained scoreless through the next three innings while the Knights scored six more runs to win by 10.
Orestimba’s season will come to a close in its final series of the season against Escalon High (16-8) (6-4 TVL). Orestimba will host the series opener on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Monday’s game will honor the team’s five senior players.
With this being the final series for them, Dominguez said he expects there will be “a lot of emotion” from his players, especially with graduation approaching.
“It’s not only their senior night for baseball. It’s the last time they’ll be competing in a sport in high school,” Dominguez said. “Whatever you did, that’s it, your four years.”
