The Turlock High baseball program officially began its quest for a third straight Central California Athletic League championship Monday at Mark de la Motte Field by welcoming rival Gregori to town. After another intense and at times emotional battle between the two teams, it was the Bulldogs that celebrated a 3-2 victory after riding a three-run third inning and the dominant pitching of senior Cooper Pacheco.

Pacheco and his batterymate, junior Aiden De Los Santos, were in the middle of Monday’s action. 

Pacheco was tagged for a run in the first inning following two hits and a hit-by-pitch before the Bulldogs poured it on in the third against Gregori starter Mike Carrera. Senior Adam Torres jumpstarted the rally with a leadoff single and quickly advanced into scoring position on an error and groundout, Pacheco brought him on a sacrifice fly. After senior Owen McCord singled, De Los Santos plated him with an RBI double to deep center field. De Los Santos scampered home after stealing third and watching the throw down escape from the Gregori catcher.

The manufactured third run from De Los Santos proved to be the difference on the scoreboard as the Bulldogs recorded three errors in the fifth inning to gift the Jaguars a run in the fifth.

The Jaguars threatened in the sixth, where a fielding error put the tying run, Gage Perez, on first. Perez, who had stolen four bases in as many attempts in the young season, took off towards second but was thrown out by De Los Santos — his fourth runner caught stealing of the year.

“We figured they'd be aggressive on the basepaths, but that's what I’m here for,” De Los Santos said. “I just needed to stay ready.”

As for Pacheco, he remained composed to maintain control of his strong curveball and keep Gregori scoreless through its last two chances at the plate, despite a rising pitch count. Pacheco induced three groundouts, two weak fly balls and a strikeout to shut down the Jags, giving up the one earned run on two hits and a walk while punching out three (all on the curve) in the 91-pitch complete game effort.

“I wasn’t coming out of this game. In no way was I coming out,” Pacheco said emphatically postgame. “I was going to finish it no matter what.

“I want to throw a lot of strikes, to force swings to get a lot of ground balls, and sometimes the strikeouts happen. Everything felt great today.”

Turlock skipper Mike Souza agreed.

“Even with some of those errors, he threw lights out and became a Bulldog when we needed him. He did his job, and the defense will get better behind as we get playing a little bit more,” Souza vowed.

The final out, a throw across the diamond from McCord to Braydon Keyler, prompted an emotional celebration from the Turlock dugout and some frustration from the Jaguar bench. Players briefly exchanged words prior to forming the handshake line, perhaps with last year’s overturned doubleheader debacle still fresh in some minds.

The opening series will continue Wednesday at the Gregori campus in north Modesto before transitioning back to Turlock on Friday. First pitch each day is slated for 4 p.m.

“We’ll see what happens this week,” De Los Santos said. “We just need to play baseball, do our jobs. We need to stay within ourselves.”

“It’s all about staying composed and playing our game,” Souza added. “These next two games, we need to focus on our play and nothing else. We can’t afford to get caught up in anything extra.”