The Turlock High baseball team came away with a low scoring victory against Downey High Wednesday afternoon. Both teams had similar box scores, but the Bulldogs were able to capitalize on more opportunities to come away with the 3-1 victory.

The Bulldogs are just starting league play, and are off to a strong start, with stellar pitching performances. 

“It was a great game with great pitching on both sides,” said Turlock head coach Sean Gilbert. “Turlock’s off to a great start behind two great pitching performances.”

The win comes off of another close, low scoring victory against Downey on Monday where senior Pitcher Kaden Petersen gave up two hits with nine strikeouts. Junior Pitcher Payton Hawkinson put together a strong outing going 6 ⅓ innings, while giving up eight hits, eight strikeouts, one walk and one earned run.

Aidan Askil started an early rally with a leadoff triple to get the scoring started. Later on, in the half inning Gannon Evans and Griffen Sotomayor got the bases loaded, but Kody Sins grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to get Downey out of the inning.

Senior Logan Hart finished the game with two hits off of three at bats, Askil highlighted his afternoon with the triple and Evans and Sotomayor with their respective doubles. Junior pitcher Dustin Newsome also came in clutch with a timely save to secure the victory.

The Bulldogs went 6-4 in the preseason and are off to a 2-0 start in league play with the two victories over the Knights. Turlock heads back to Downey for the final game of the series on Friday at 3:45 p.m.

The Bulldogs are hoping to continue their stretch of success where they earned a share of the 2021 league title and haven’t finished worse than second in league play since the 2012 season.