Wrapping up its regular season, members of the Cougar track and field team traveled to Hughson for the Trans-Valley League finals on May 8.

“The meet went well and although neither the boys team nor the girls team managed to win (TVL titles) there were some good individual results,” explained head coach Arend Jones. “In the final event of the evening, the Escalon girls four-by-400 relay, Megan Silva closed a 20-meter gap with Sonora and passed her in the final seconds to place fourth and secure not only a qualification for Divisions, but also a third-place finish for the girls team in the TVL this season.”

Silva also qualified for Divisonals in three other events, the 4-by-100 relay, the 100-meter sprint and the 200-meter sprint.

She placed first in the 200 at the varsity finals, said the coach, and beat her own previous school record in the process.

Several other seniors also qualified for Divisionals.

“Alondra Gonzalez qualified in the 100-meter sprint, Nate Millard in the 800-meter run, Trenton Epps in the 300-meter hurdles, Calan Crumbley in the 400-meter sprint, Nathan Belletto in discus and Audrey Ware in shot put,” said Jones.

The boys four-by-800-meter relay team moves on, featuring Drew Bellinger, Gabriel Cortes, Rigoberto Ramirez and Nate Millard. The girls will have three relay teams competing at Divisionals. The girls four-by-800 includes Victoria Calderon, Jocelyn Espinoza, Georgia Northcutt and Emma Churchill. The girls four-by-400 includes Northcutt, Gonzalez, Silva and Addison Correia with the girls four-by-100 team featuring Gonzalez, Silva, Ava Rodriguez and Madisyn Vandykhuizen.

Other qualifiers for the Divisionals – set May 14 at the Riverbank High School stadium – were sophomore Jaecy Aldasoro in discus, junior Annabelle Armstrong in pole vault, Junior Gracie Airola in shot put and junior Gloria Segura in shot put with a first-place finish at the TVL finals.

“All qualifiers will compete on Wednesday at Riverbank and those that qualify in track events will compete again on Friday for finals, which will be a qualifying meet for the Masters,” Jones explained.

BASEBALL

Opening round playoff action for the varsity Cougars saw the baseball boys travel to take on the Liberty Ranch Hawks in Galt on May 6. The Division 5 Sac-Joaquin Section contest ended with the host team putting a win on the books, 8-7.

The final score, however, was not without controversy as there was some confusion regarding a substitution made by Escalon and Liberty Ranch protesting that action, which came at a crucial time in the game.

Liberty Ranch got on the board with two runs in the first; Escalon countered with one in the second but the Hawks got it right back and took a 3-1 lead after two innings.

A three-run top of the third put the Cougars up 4-3 but a resilient Liberty Ranch squad came back with four runs in the bottom of the frame, leading 7-4. They added an insurance run in the fourth, leading 8-4. Escalon pushed across two runs in the top of the sixth to trim the lead to 8-6 and scored a run in the seventh to get to within 8-7.

Escalon used a pinch runner in both the sixth and seventh innings, using a different runner each time for starter Ryan Murphy after he reached base. In the seventh inning, after Escalon had scored a run, Murphy got on with a double, representing the tying run in scoring position and he was removed for a pinch runner.

Escalon Athletic Director Andrew Beam reported that Liberty Ranch protested the second pinch runner, indicating it was illegal and, after conferring, umpires agreed and called the pinch runner out.

“Thus, making the top of the seventh with two outs and nobody on base vs. the tying run on second base and one out,” Beam said.

The game resumed and the Cougars could not get that tying run across, falling to the host Hawks.

Escalon later filed a protest, arguing that it was not an illegal substitution and asking for the game to be resumed in the top of the seventh but it was denied; officials said the resumption of the game after the out call was made on May 6 negated the option for a protest.

“The game was very unfortunate. The umpires called a great game and in the seventh inning they happened to make an unfortunate call and took away an opportunity from the boys,” said head coach Gino Franceschetti. “It should have never happened but at the end of the day, we had our opportunities to win that game and we didn’t take full advantage of it.”

Beam said umpires did later “admit to a few mistakes” but added that the decision was termed human error and that “nothing can be done.”

Franceschetti said it was a very tough way to end a solid season by the team.

“The coaches are wearing it hard,” Franceschetti said, as they didn’t protest immediately. “We do our best to take the technicalities out of the game so the boys can just play … Unfortunately, I have never been in that situation before and I didn’t know how to respond to the umpires’ decision.”

In the playoff contest, Ian Burk, Ryan Murphy, Dylan Ball and Cole Fox each had a multi-hit game, with Burk and Ball driving in five runs between them.

Brody Abbot pitched three innings and Josh Fiori pitched three; Fiori had seven strikeouts.

“We still had a great season that the boys should be proud of,” said Franceschetti. “We had a lot of young guys that contributed to the team. They handled their own. And I’m very proud of the seniors. They were good leaders and great role models for the younger boys.”

Escalon ended its season with a 15-10 record and were third in the Trans-Valley League at 9-3.

Liberty Ranch, as the number eight seed, hosted number nine Escalon in the May 6 game.

The Hawks then had to face off with top seed Lincoln in the quarterfinals on May 8 and fell by a 5-2 decision to the Fighting Zebras.

TENNIS

The varsity Cougars hosted Florin in an opening round playoff match on Thursday, May 8 and used home court to their advantage, winning by an 8-1 final.

At boys number one singles, Nathan Rose was a 6-0, 6-2 winner while Landon Underwood was a 6-1, 6-1 winner at number two boys singles. Girls singles play saw number one Kali Castellanos win in straight sets, while number two singles Laura Schussmann fell in straight sets.

All the doubles teams were victorious on the afternoon: Daniel Adams and Luca Cerasi, 7-5, 6-4, in boys number one doubles, Maddox Neilsen and Cooper Fugett, 6-0, 6-3 in boys number two doubles. The number one girls doubles team of Emma Rangel and Marina Franzia won 6-0, 6-1 and number two girls doubles Ashlyn Paxman and Haven MacKinnon won the first set 7-5 before their Florin counterparts forfeited in the second round. And it was a clean sweep for the mixed doubles of Brien Novetzke and Violet Da Silva, 6-0, 6-0.

“Landon Underwood played a phenomenal match on Thursday, he played very smart and played one of his best matches so far,” said head coach Julianne Eavenson. “Our girls singles number two Laura Schussman fought so hard during her match; she played in her first singles match this season and showed a lot of improvement … we are excited to see where she will go for us.”

Eavenson also said they mixed the line up a little bit with positive results.

“Brien Novetzke and Violet Da Silva played their first official match together at mixed doubles and their 6-0, 6-0 victory cemented the win for us in our match, they complement each other really well on the court,” the coach said. “Overall, it was a great team effort on all parts, individually in their matches our kids dominated and we are excited going into the second round of playoffs.”

GOLF

Cougar golfers Brenden Berchtold and Dom Arauza represented Escalon at the Divisionals golf tournament, closing out their season this past week.

Berchtold shot a 92, placing him 27th out of 72 competing golfers.

Arauza carded a 99 on the day, earning him a 45th place overall finish.