One of the most consequential series of the region began on Wednesday afternoon when the Hilmar varsity baseball team welcomed the Hughson program to town.
In the opening game of a two-set series, the Yellowjackets defended their home field, riding a four-run sixth inning and fending off a late rally en route to a 7-6 win.
It was the first league loss of the season for the Huskies, who dropped to 10-1 against conference opponents. They remain in first place, though they now share the top spot in the Trans-Valley League standings with the Yellowjackets, who now sport a 7-1 record in league play. (The discrepancy in games played is due to Hilmar already having their bye week on the league schedule, while the Huskies will not be off of TVL play until next week, where they’ll hope to stay fresh for the postseason by participating in the Oakdale Tournament).
Trailing 4-3 heading into the home half of the sixth, a pair of Hughson fielding errors immediately put the pressure on reliever Dominic Aguiar, who proceeded to load the bases with no outs after surrendering a walk. He didn’t seem fazed, though, punching out the next two batters, but couldn’t escape the jam, allowing pinch runner Stewart Contreras to score the tying run on a wild pitch. The Yellowjackets took their first lead of the afternoon when Kohen Felber beat out a grounder to the right side of the infield, which was slightly bobbled, allowing Tanner Westmoreland to touch home plate without a throw. The lead extended to 7-4 when John Lopez smacked a two-run single to right field.
A relentless Hughson offense refused to go quietly, working a pair of walks against closer Kayleb Amaya, who assumed the role fairly recently following an injury to Javi Mena. After a single by Karsen Moore loaded the bases for the Huskies, Isaac Lupercio drove in a pair on a scorching two-out, ground ball single down the right field line. With the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first, Amaya struck out the slugging Lawson Aviles on three pitches to secure the win.
“After that one hit, I had to realize that they were going to get hits, and find gaps. I just had to limit them,” Amaya said. “I just had to stay calm and hit my spots. The offspeed stuff wasn't working, so I had to keep going, keep fighting through. And I got through it.
“It always feels great to knock off a No. 1 team.”
Hilmar starting pitcher Brad Chipponeri credited the Hughson lineup for their patient approaches at the plate. Two weeks ago, Hughson skipper Charly Garza described his roster as one of the most disciplined he has coached. In the first inning, they laid off Chipponeri’s fastball, which the lengthy Hilmar right said was “a little off” and landed low. His slider worked much better, but the top of the lineup that consisted of Aviles, Beau Blake, Carlos Guizar and Andrew Fisher worked full counts early. Fisher reached on a single, advanced to third on an errant pickoff attempt, and scored on a wild pitch. Blake, who walked, then scored on a sharp grounder off the bat of Max Mankins.
Hilmar answered in the second inning against Makins, with Jacob Sward leading off with a walk, advancing on a balk and scoring on an infield single by Tanner Westmoreland. The Huskies pushed their lead to 4-1 after Blake walked again, advanced on another wild pitch and scored on a Bryce McDaniel groundout. Guizar, who singled, scored on the third wild pitch of the inning.
“Man, they just weren't getting anything off,” Chipponeri said with a chuckle. “Everything I was throwing, they just didn’t want to swing at it. I was trying my best, but, you know those situations, I really wasn't trying to throw them anything they can handle, so it became kind of hard for me to command the zone. It was tough. I just had to persevere and just kept on. My teammates just helped me out tremendously.”
The ‘Jackets used “small ball” to their advantage in the fourth inning. Chipponeri led off the inning with a single, with pinch-runner Aiden Machado moving into scoring position on a sac-bunt by Junior Solis, running safely into third on a wild pitch, then scoring when Amaya reached on a throwing error at first base. Amaya stole second before scoring to make it 4-3 on John Labno’s towering double down the left field line that was just out of the reach of Lupercio.
“We knew (Mankins) likes throwing the fastball, so we tried jumping on it early,” Amaya said. “After that, we were sitting curveball and just sat on that, looking for good pitches to hit.”
The series concludes Thursday at 4 p.m. in Hughson. The Huskies will try to take advantage of the quick turnaround by washing away the tight loss, while the Yellowjackets hope to ride the momentum.
“If anything, this game proved to our guys that we can beat anybody,” said Hilmar head coach Frank Hilliard. “We knew what we were capable of, but we needed to execute it and get the results, and that’s what we did. Now we’ve got that confidence, that momentum, and we're just hoping to take this with us to Hughson tomorrow and complete this sweep. If we can do it, it's going to be monumental for these kids and for our program.”
After a 12-12 overall record last year and a fourth place finish in the TVL at 5-7, the Yellowjackets have already clinched their first winning season since 2022, when they went 14-10 on the year and finished in a three-way tie with Hughson and Livingston atop the standings with matching 9-3 records.
