Turlock High’s 2013 baseball team is officially in the record books. With back to back wins over Atwater High—a 7-5 victory on Wednesday and a 10-2 victory on Friday— the Bulldogs (17-1 overall, 8-0 CCC) broke the 16 game consecutive win streak that was set two years ago.
“I’m really happy for the guys. They’ve worked very hard for a very long time,” Turlock’s head coach Mark de la Motte said. “It gives them a lot of confidence, in themselves and their teammates. To pass the record is real special.”
Turlock’s record tying victory on Wednesday looked to be in the books for the majority of the game, but a late spurt of offensive output by the Falcons nearly derailed the run. For six innings Nick Voumard stood tall on the mound where he threw 10 strike outs and allowed only four hits before he was relieved and headed into the dugout with no earned runs.
“He’s become a real pitcher as opposed to just a hard thrower,” de la Motte said of Voumard.
Prior to Voumard’s exit from the hill, the Turlock senior had also contributed from the plate, hitting a two run single in the third inning. The fortune of runs—a pair of Atwater outfielders had collided and dropped the pop fly—was followed by a Tyler Murphy score from third base on another Atwater error. Murphy had also contributed to the scoreboard in the previous inning with a walk off home run.
“We played well, but they gave us some breaks,” de la Motte said.
Turlock added more runs in the fourth inning with a two-run triple from Adam Groesbeck and a one-run double from Brett Cumberland.
Though they were far behind, the Falcons orchestrated a four run seventh inning against Turlock’s Dakota Edwards for a near comeback. Edwards managed to save the game, though, and finished with one strike out, two hits, and three earned runs.
“It wasn’t one of our better games, that’s for sure. We were a little bit over confident,” de la Motte said.
Atwater carried over its late inning momentum into Friday’s matchup by scoring two runs in the first inning but was unable to do much else afterwards. Turlock, on the other hand, hit a string of runs over the course of the game with big man Austin Bush coming through with four RBI’s. Bush’s first pair of RBIs came in the second inning when he hit a 360 yard, two-run homer on a full count.
“With today’s bats it’s almost impossible to hit a homerun,” de la Motte said.
Tyler Lucas added another run to the scoreboard in the third inning when he was hit by a Falcon pitch that scored a teammate from third before Cameron Matsumura and Luis Mendez each hit two-run singles to make the score 7-2. Bush followed with a one-run double in the fourth inning while the final two runs came in the seventh inning via a Gavin Gaffaney one-run single and a Bush sacrifice fly that crossed the final run.
Turlock’s next opponent will be Pitman High as the Bulldogs look to continue their perfect Central California Conference season and extend their consecutive win streak.
