For the second consecutive season, the Bulldogs of Turlock High School have been eliminated in the first round of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I baseball playoffs. This year, the Bulldogs came into the playoffs as the #9 seed in the Division I bracket, being forced to travel up to Oak Ridge for Tuesday’s game to face the #8 seed Oak Ridge Trojans. The home team would ride a dominant pitching performance enroute to a 4-0 victory.

On the mound for the Trojans was Brady Rea, who tossed a complete-game shutout. In his seven innings of work, he allowed just two Bulldogs to reach base – a double by sophomore Josh Ramirez and a single by Carson Gonzales. The righty also struck out six in his outing.

“We never got the big hit,” said first-year Turlock head coach Mike Souza. “We had guys in scoring position, we had guys get on, but we never got the big knock. It was just about the timely hitting, and they were able to find those holes and we didn’t, and that’s pretty much it.”

If there was any silver lining for the Bulldogs in the loss, Rea has shown similar dominance throughout the 2023 season. In 33 2/3 innings, the junior has posted an ERA of 1.46, the second lowest on the team behind Jake Fields’ 1.35. He has also made the most appearance for the Trojans, proving to be an important piece in their playoff berth after going 15-12-1 overall on the season and 8-7 in the Sierra Foothills League.

Souza admitted that they expected to see Fields open the playoffs for the Trojans rather than Rea, who offered much different mechanics.

“Going into the game, we were expecting to see Fields, the right hander that fills gaps, but this guy (Rea) through a little bit softer. But you know, that's just part of the game,” he said.

On the bump for the Bulldogs was senior southpaw Payton Hawkinson. In his six innings of work, he allowed the four Trojan runs to score after being tagged for eight hits and three walks.

“Payton didn’t really have any struggles,” Souza said. “His pitches were working, but t they're a good hitting team and that's a pretty tough league they play in.

In terms of scoring, runs were driven of the bats of Dylan Barthel (1), Andrew Del Pizzo (1) and Carson Nichols (2).

With the loss, the Bulldogs finish their 2023 campaign with a 15-13-1 overall record on the year after going 10-5 in the Central California Athletic League.

“My message to the team was just, ‘Yeah, we made the playoffs and that’s not all we wanted, but there's a lot of schools in our area that didn't get a chance to play another game. That's a good team over there. I was just trying to be positive after a tough loss and during a tough time for some of the guys.”

One thing that has already excited Souza and his coaching staff is the fact that they have multiple starters coming back in 2024. During Tuesday’s game, only one starter was a senior, though there was one sophomore and seven juniors.

“I let those younger guys know, next year there is going be a lot of high hopes, so be ready and use this as motivation,” Souza said. “It was a great season coming over from the softball side and coaching here, but I’m looking forward to watching them put up a fight next year.”