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Bulldogs in title game
THS baseball pic2
Turlock High’s Nick Voumard threw six innings and finished with eight strikeouts in a 7-0 win over Sonora High on Friday night in the 27th Pedretti Tournament. - photo by CHHUN SUN / The Journal

The scoring output wasn’t the same as the previous night’s, but the Turlock High baseball team’s dominant ways did not change.

Thanks to a strong outing by sophomore pitch Nick Voumard and a three-run triple by Kevin Kramer midway through the game, the Bulldogs shut out Sonora High 7-0 on Friday night in the winners’ bracket of the 27th Atch Pedretti Tournament at the Pedretti Sports Complex to advance to the championship game once again.

Turlock will face the Oakdale High Mustangs at its own baseball field at 1:30 p.m. today in hopes of back-to-back tournament titles.

So far, the 5-0 Bulldogs look good. Really good.

The night before, Turlock exploded for 21 runs in a 21-1 win over Johansen High in the Pedretti tournament opener.

But in Friday’s game, the Bulldogs didn’t score until the fourth inning, when senior James Heller earned a run after starting the frame with a triple to centerfield. And then, Kramer knocked a shot over the reach of the Sonora leftfielder for a three-run triple to put the Bulldogs ahead 4-0.

“Hitting is contagious,” coach Mark de la Motte said. “We were patient. We got so many hits yesterday that we couldn’t buy one early. We did a good job putting the ball in play.”

Turlock put up two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth for the game’s final scores, with Heller going 2-for-3 with two doubles and a triple and Tommy Evans finishing with a base hit and two RBIs. With that kind of production, Voumard was able to stay dominant on the mound.

The sophomore, who produced a key win in last season’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South Tournament finals run, finished with eight strikeouts and allowed two hits to improve to 2-0. Brent Backland relieved the final two innings and tallied two strikeouts.

It all helped the Bulldogs to maintain an undefeated record.

“I know people are saying that we’re good, this and that,” Voumard said. “We still have to prove that to ourselves. As soon as we start thinking that, that’s when things might go a little downhill. We gotta keep our heads up and keep playing hard.”

To contact Chhun Sun, e-mail csun@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2041.