Rebounding well from a pair of losses, their first two in league play, the JV baseball Cougars closed out their season with two wins, defeating Hilmar on the road and at home.
Tuesday, they played to a 10-0 victory over the host Yellowjackets.
“Ty Harris got a complete game shutout,” said head coach Ken Baptista. “He allowed two hits and struck out seven, he did a great job.”
The JV Cougars, by winning both games during the week, earned a league co-championship with Hughson.
“Ripon helped us out, they beat Hughson,” Baptista added.
Luke Anderson was 3-for-4 with a pair of runs batted in on Tuesday, Bryce McPherrin was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Clayton Ferreira was 1-for-2 with two runs batted in.
“We scored four runs in the first, we were pretty determined,” said Baptista of the team coming back strong from the earlier losses.
On Wednesday, the JV boys were at home for the season finale and the coach put all the sophomores on the field, giving them a chance to start in their final JV contest. It was a 7-5 win for Escalon.
Zach Hearn was the starting pitcher and went three-and-a-third innings, allowing four runs.
“None of them were earned,” Baptista said of the Hilmar runs. “We had five errors.”
Hilmar ended up scoring four runs in the fourth inning and Hearn was lifted for Demetrius Teixeira, who went three-and-two-thirds innings in relief, allowing just one hit and one run.
The JV Cougars scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead and Teixeira ultimately got the win.
“Everyone contributed,” added Baptista.
Dylan Ruiz had a base hit that scored a run, Brad Hagglund was 1-for-2 and scored a run, Ethan Johnson was 1-for-2, Kaidence Trejo had a leadoff single in the third inning and came around to score.
The JV boys went 10-2 in Trans-Valley League play and finished the season at 17-7 overall.
“We saw dramatic improvement from last year, the sophomore class has grown and really improved a lot,” Baptista said. “I’m proud of them and we also have a deep freshman class, we have a lot of young possible pitchers and that’s exciting.”
The co-championship for the league title was also a satisfying way to end the campaign.
“It was a good season,” agreed Baptista. “It was a much better feeling at the end of this season than it was last year.”
