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JV Baseball Boys Take Two TVL Wins For Week
Lowney
JV player Colton Lowney watches where the ball is going as he makes his way up the first base line during a recent home game. Lowney pitched in a Thursday win against Mountain House, going four strong innings. Marg Jackson/The Times

A no-hitter and a home victory made up the week for Escalon’s JV baseball boys, as they topped Mountain House twice in Trans-Valley League action.

Tuesday, April 19 they traveled to face the Mustangs and came away with an 11-0 victory on the no-hit pitching of Paul Ayala.

“He went five innings, had a no-hitter, allowed no walks and had four strikeouts,” said JV coach Ken Baptista.

Offensively, the young squad was clicking on all cylinders, rapping out double digit hits to put up their double digit runs.

“Every single guy in our line-up had at least one hit, we had 15 total hits,” Baptista said. “Lucca Dutra was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored, Max Nicholas was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI.”

Escalon’s JV boys got on the board with two runs in the first, single runs in the second, third and fourth and then the big outburst with six runs in the fifth.

“Thursday we won 9-3,” Baptista said of coming home to get another win. “We scored all nine runs in the first three innings.”

Escalon held the Mustangs off the board until they scored three runs in the fifth inning and that ended a huge scoreless streak for the young squad.

“We had gone 34 straight innings without giving up a run,” Baptista said, which had become a huge source of pride for the squad. “It was five games plus a few innings.”

Even when the run came in to break that scoreless streak, Baptista said his shortstop fielded the ball and thought about trying to cut the runner down at home but made the proper play by getting the force out at first.

“Colton Lowney went four innings and struck out five,” Baptista said. “Then we brought in a couple of our younger guys to get some work, Cole Gilbert and Anthony LaRossa, they provided three innings of relief.”

Again, the JV Cougars had the bats going, rapping out a dozen hits, paced by Lowney with a 4-for-4 afternoon with two runs scored and a pair of runs batted in. Dutra went 2-for-3 as the JV squad maintained its standing atop the Trans-Valley League.

“We have this week off, no JV team for Modesto Christian,” said Baptista. “So our next game is at home on Tuesday, May 3.”

That game will be against Hughson, slated for a 4 p.m. start.