The Turlock Christian High baseball team are the Central California Athletic Alliance champions for the first time in program history.
They closed out the regular season on Tuesday afternoon from Pedretti Park when they hosted their league rivals Stone Ridge Christian for the second meeting of the season. The Eagles controlled the game from the start.
The Eagles notched over 20 runs in the game to secure a 21-1 mercy-rule win, securing their impressive season after 20 games played with 18 victories.
“We’ve been talking about it all year; these players been prepared since day one and they came out and took care of business every single game,” said TC’s first-year head coach Bill York.
Despite having only two seniors on the regular rotation of starters, the Eagles squad is loaded with talent, with half the team returners, including multiple all-leaguers.
“Here is the thing, lots of kids playing baseball, but what I consider a baseball player and a gamer, and I have baseball players who are gamers,” said York. “They have taken their youth experience and have become ball players; these kids are baseball all the way.”
TC clinched the CCAA title, the first in program history, with an impressive 13-1 record.
The Eagles outscored their league opponents, 201-39, during league play.
TC closed out the regular season winning four straight, including nine of its last 10.
This regular season was also the best for TC baseball since 2007 when the Eagles went 19-6 overall.
It is also the first time the Eagles won a league title since winning the Southern Athletic League in 2007 with a record of 13-2.
The 13 league wins marks the third time in program history over the last 13 seasons that they managed to gain that many victories or more.
“It didn’t matter if it was a good or middle of the road teams, they played the same and it was cool last week facing Big Valley for essentially the championship,” said York. “You couldn’t tell we were playing those games as opposed to today, same demeanor, same intensity and they put it all together.”
On Tuesday, the offense managed to score the second most runs this year from Pedretti with 21.
It started in the first inning when two runs were scored.
The Eagles followed up with an eight, six and five-run rallies in the next three innings, respectively.
The pitching was consistent and the defense played a nearly flawless game, committing just one error for the game.
Jakob Skinner, Nathaniel Balantine and Will York combined to pitch five innings, allowed just three hits, walked one and struck out eight combined.
Eight different players got a hit for the game.
Liam Jones, Markie Delgadillo, Balantine and Skinner finished the game with two hits apiece.
Ethan Fisher and Micah Blomenkamp both went 3-for-4 for the game.
Blomenkamp had five RBI, Delgadillo finished four RBI while Fisher and Jones each had three RBI apiece.
The Eagles now advance to the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs and are expected to compete in the Division-VII bracket against an opponent and time yet to be determined on May 16.
“We don’t want to overlook any team but it should be about the program, to have some pride for the school you go to and let’s hang some banners… so we are a few steps closer to that,” York added.
