AÂ mere 24 hours after the Yuba City High baseball team blasted Vista del Lago to get to the finals at the inaugural NorCal Classic 12âteam YC Spring Break Tournament, the Honkers fell on the other side of a blowout Wednesday night when Folsom routed YC 11-1 (6 innings) to win the tournament and improve to 8-14 overall.
YC fell to 17-5 and will return to Foothill Valley League action Monday when it opens a series at home against Placer at 6 p.m. at Winship Field (YCHS).Â
Overall, YC head coach Maury Castaneda liked the experience of the multi-day tournament that included teams from all over California, including the LA City Section. Castaneda called the event a good measuring stick for his team entering the stretch run of league and Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs starting May 5.
âIt was a playoff atmosphere,â Castaneda said. âItâs what we needed. We were able to play some quality competition and get a lot of guys some work.âÂ
Yuba City is likely to be positioned as a D-III playoff team next month, while Folsom could be placed in D-I. Currently, the Bulldogs sit No. 8 in MaxPrepsâ weekly computer formula D-I poll, which is in line for an at-large berth.
Folsom returns to the Sierra-Foothill League Tuesday to take on SFL and D-II leader Rocklin on the road.
âTheyâre good and they wanted to get back at us; we got them earlier,â Castaneda said.
Boy did Folsom come out with something to prove, scoring eight in the first inning courtesy of a handful of YC errors and bases on balls, not to mention one ginormous smack from Logan Hutton with two outs to bring home a pair of runs. It was the first of Huttonâs two doubles as the senior collected another two-bagger in the third off sophomore reliever Cesar Guizar to help extend the lead to 10-0 through three innings.
Guizar finished with the bulk of the work for Yuba City after starter Ashton Decker was chased in the bottom of the first and Liam OâLeary went only a 1/3 of an inning â to help the Honkers get out of the first-inning massacre.Â
âDecker, tonight, wasnât getting that pitch that he normally gets for a strike, so we had to go to the bullpen early,â Castaneda said. âThe game plan going in was we are not playing again until Monday so Decker was only going to go 60 pitches unless he had a perfect game, so we could get Cesar the work he needed ⦠The young man, Cesar Guizar, can flat-out deal so Iâm excited for what we have going into the playoffs and the end of the season.âÂ
Yuba City, which was no-hit through four innings by Folsom righty Luke Williams, finally got on the board when Brody Miller reached for the second time on a two-out double to left to set the stage for Brandon Pelechowicz to smack a run-scoring single to plate Miller and extend the game to six innings.
Pelechowicz kept his average to just under .500 and will enter the final six league games with a chance to claim the ERA title in D-III. Currently the YC senior leader sits at 0.38 through 36-plus innings pitched. No. 2 is Ceres right-hander Vincent Castrejon (0.56 ERA through 49.2 innings).
âI like where the boys are, they met the challenges and I canât wait for the next couple weeks of baseball,â Castaneda said.
University Prep (Redding) won the consolation bracket with a win over Yreka, while Wheatland Union claimed fifth place by defeating Lassen Wednesday afternoon at Bryant Field.Â
Other action: Sutter 8, Dixon 3
The top-ranked team in D-V, Sutter Union HS, stayed perfect in the Golden Empire League with an 8-3 win at Dixon Wednesday, improving to 18-3 overall and 14-0 in league.
Sam Cheatle and Jonny Munger each had two hits while Munger drove home a pair for Sutter. Mason McCall got the win with four innings of shutout ball.
