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Wins Propel Varsity Courgars To Playoffs
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Hitting a solid stretch of playing good baseball, Escalon's varsity Cougars grabbed two more Trans-Valley League wins this week, topping Patterson and Riverbank.

The wins put Escalon into the playoffs, going as the number two seed from the TVL with a 9-5 mark in league play, second only to Hilmar. Riverbank finished third.

In action on the home field Tuesday against Patterson, the Cougars shut out the Tigers by a 3-0 final.

"We scored three runs in the third and then we didn't do anything after that," said coach Bob Loureiro. "It was a well-pitched game on both sides."

Escalon got things started with a walk to Colin Riggs, a single by Jesse Miguel, an infield single from Ross Brayton, followed by an RBI single from K.J. Vandagriff. After two outs, Nate Williamson reached on a two-run error to close out the scoring.

Escalon had five hits and two errors on the day, Patterson had just two hits and two errors. Mike Johansen went five strong innings for the Cougars, Peter Krumeich came on for the final two frames and also had a solid outing.

"We really, really played good defense, especially the infield," Loureiro pointed out. "We had 15 ground balls to the infield."

Williamson had the only stolen base for Escalon, Vandagriff and Anthony Suniga collected extra base hits, each notching a double.

"Thursday was wild," Loureiro said of the road game at Riverbank, with the Cougars coming away with a 13-12 win.

"We jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the second, we threatened some more but didn't score," said Loureiro. "Riverbank came right back and scored five in the bottom of the inning."

From there, it was a seesaw battle, both starting pitchers getting roughed up. Escalon added two runs in the fourth, Riverbank countered with four. Then it was six runs for Escalon in the fifth, two for the Bruins, one more for Escalon in the sixth and one run for each team in the final frame.

Hitting leaders for the Cougars were Miguel, a triple and two RBIs, Suniga with two doubles, Zachary Swass with a single and an RBI, Brian Beeman with three hits.

"It was a back and forth battle, in the seventh inning with one out, Riverbank got two hits in a row and made the last out with two men on, so they had a chance," Loureiro said. "Beeman and Suniga had the games of their life, Beeman had three hits, was 3-for-3 with two runs scored, Suniga at DH was 3-for-4 and scored three runs."

Escalon rapped out seven extra base hits among their 16, including a solo home run from Williamson in the fifth inning.

With the wins, Escalon improved to 19-6 overall and open up playoffs against Golden Sierra of the Golden Empire League at Zupo Field in Lodi at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 22.

"We won three big games in a row," Loureiro said, adding he hopes that bodes well for continued strong play in postseason. "This was a wild finish to the regular season and I'm happy to go on, this is a team that does belong in the playoffs."



ESCALON 3, PATTERSON 0

Tuesday, May 11 at Escalon



PAT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 2 2

ESC 0 0 3 0 0 0 x - 3 5 2



PLAYER AB R H RBI

J. Miguel(4) 3 1 1 0

R. Brayton(2) 3 1 1 0

K.J. Vandagriff(8) 3 0 2 1

B. Lynn(7) 3 0 0 0

P. Krumeich(6/1) 2 0 0 0

N. Brown(PR) 0 0 0 0

N. Williamson(3) 3 0 0 0

D. Placido(DH) 2 0 0 0

A. Suniga(PH) 1 0 1 0

B. Beeman(9) 3 0 0 0

C. Riggs(5) 1 1 0 0



TOTALS 24 3 5 1

2B - Vandagriff, Suniga; SB - Williamson



PITCHING IP R H W K

M. Johansen 5 0 2 1 1

P. Krumeich 2 0 0 0 0

(Johansen, Krumeich (6) and Brayton)

WP - Johansen



ESCALON 13, RIVERBANK 12

Thursday, May 13 at Riverbank



ESC 0 3 0 2 6 1 1 - 13 16 2

RIV 0 5 0 4 2 0 1 - 12 15 2



PLAYER AB R H RBI

J. Miguel(4) 4 0 1 2

R. Brayton(2) 4 1 1 0

K.J. Vandagriff(8) 3 2 2 2

B. Lynn(7) 5 1 2 2

P. Krumeich(6/1) 4 1 1 1

N. Williamson(3) 3 1 1 1

A. Suniga(DH) 4 3 3 1

Z. Swass(1) 1 1 1 1

G. Goedhart(1) 1 0 0 0

D. Placido(PH) 1 1 1 1

B. Beeman(9) 3 2 3 2



TOTALS 33 13 16 13

2B - Suniga 2, Vandagriff, Lynn, Placido; 3B - Miguel, Lynn; HR - Williamson



PITCHING IP R H W K

Z. Swass 3.1 9 8 2 1

G. Goedhart 1.2 2 5 2 1

P. Krumeich 2 1 2 1 4

(Swass, Goedhart(4), Krumeich(6) and Brayton)

WP - Krumeich