HUGHSON — Andrew Fisher’s two-run double snapped a fourth-inning tie, and propelled Hughson High’s baseball team to a 12-2 mercy-rule victory over Wheatland in the deciding game of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 5 semifinals Thursday.
The second-seeded Huskies (27-6) advance to take on No. 1 Lincoln (23-9) in a winner-take-all matchup at Islanders Field in Lathrop on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Fisher, a senior third-baseman, made two errors in the field before he strode to the plate with the scored knotted. He also made a base-running gaffe when he failed to slide into the bag as second baseman Adrain Villar fumbled the toss from shortstop Cristian Haro — a play on which Lawson Aviles scored from third to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. So, instead of having runners on first and second with one out, the hot-hitting Carlos Guizar stepped to the plate with two outs and a runner on first.
“Yeah, I think I would’ve been safe had I slid,” said Fisher. “But I try not to think about past mistakes. It gets in your head and ruins everything.”
Head coach Charly Garza confirmed that Fisher isn’t the type to dwell on miscues.
“He’s kind of mellow,” said Garza. “He doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low. Other kids do, but he just stays cool, stays calm.”
Trailing 2-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth, Bryce McDaniel and Benji Ocequeda both were hit by pitches before Max Mankins popped to short for the first out. Karsen Moore then singled to load the bases for Aviles, who smoked a ball off the wall in right that plated McDaniel with the tying run. Aviles, who missed hitting a home run by a few feet in Game 1 of the series, missed a grand slam by about 12 inches Thursday.
“First two games of the year I had home runs and after that I was like, ‘I gotta hit more; I gotta hit more,’” said Aviles, who became infatuated by the short porch in right field. “Then I got pull-happy and went into a pretty bad slump.”
Leadoff hitter Isaac Lupercio struck out for the second out of the inning, setting the stage for Fisher, who drilled a 1-1 fastball down the third-base line.
“He was throwing me fastballs inside the whole game,” said Fisher. “That’s what he threw me there, and I just sat back and hit it over the third baseman’s head.”
Fisher’s hit ignited the rest of the lineup.
Beau Blake, the team leader in batting average (.510), home runs (8), and RBIs (45), followed with an excuse-me single up the third-base line that allowed Aviles to score the first run, and Fisher to move to third.
At that point, Villar took the mound to face Guizar, and promptly uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Fisher to bolt home to make it 6-2.
Hughson scored three in the fifth, with Fisher drawing a bases-loaded walk and Blake delivering a two-run single to center that made it 9-2, then walked it off in the bottom of the sixth with three more runs — Fisher drew the base on balls that made it a 10-run margin and ended the game instantly.
Ocegueda earned the victory for the Huskies, hurling four innings while giving up four hits and two walks, while striking out eight and allowing two runs — both unearned.
“The past couple of games I’ve kind of been trying to find it,” said Ocegueda, who had a man on third with no outs in the second, but struck out the side for the second consecutive inning to escape the jam. “But I felt like I was at my peak today. This game today, I finally got my mind right.”
Defensively, Aviles turned in the play of the game. The junior started the game in right field, and nearly made a sliding, shoestring catch, only to have the ball pop out when his glove hit the turf. He was actually charged with a tough-luck error on the play when, trying to retrieve the ball, he bobbled it, which allowed the runner to advance. He more than made up for it in the sixth, after he’d been shifted to second base.
Tucker Peterson, the Pirates’ starter, led off the frame and worked the count to 3-2 before lacing what seemed like a certain single between first and second. Aviles, moving to his left at a 45-degree angle, fielded the ball in short right field, with his momentum carrying him even deeper onto the grass. He deftly spun counterclockwise and fired a bullet to Guizar to nail Peterson by a step.
“Yesterday (Game 2) I had a few errors and I let my team down on defense,” said Aviles. “I was put in right field today; I’ll play anywhere and do whatever this team needs. When (Lupercio) went into pitch, I went to second, and just had to make the most of it for my team.”
Aviles then fielded a routine grounder for the second out before Lupercio fanned leadoff man Jordan James for the third out, setting up the decisive bottom half of the sixth.
Eleven players on the Hughson roster — Guizar, Aviles, Mankins, McDaniel, Oceguda, Dominic Aguiar, Jamesson Davis, Gavin Gomez, Garrett Ecker, Cooper Peterson, Landon Peterson — now have a chance to add a baseball trophy to their football hardware (Fisher and Blake won a title at Turlock Christian before transferring). And Garza, who coached the school’s flag football team to its first section crown in the fall, is looking for his second blue banner this school year.
“It’s a winning school,” said Garza. “Shaun (King) does a great job with them in football, and we have a lot of football kids on our roster. They don’t know anything else but winning. And when they lose, they lose hard, because they pour so much into it — the weight room, the reps, everything they do. They’re used to winning and they want to win and they won’t settle for anything less, so it’s a really good culture going on here right now.”
Hughson, which took the series opener 8-2 on Monday before losing 7-3 in Game 2 on Wednesday, is searching for the first section title in the program’s history. This year’s trip to the section final will be the fifth for the school. In their four previous appearances, the Huskies lost 6-1 to Vanden (D-3) in 1981, 8-3 to Escalon (D-3) in 1991, 8-1 to Central Catholic (D-5) in 2008, and 3-1 to Bradshaw Christian (D-5) in 2022.
After reaching the finals three years ago, Hughson saw its 2023 and 2024 seasons end with semifinal losses to Sutter.
