Soderstrom, Turlock power past El Capitan in key CCC matchup

El Capitan starter Chase Whitaker barely had time to settle in on the mound before he was under attack. Turlock’s potent offense was on display early.

It started with a leadoff triple by Mason King. King sprinted home on a wild pitch to quickly score the Bulldogs’ first run. Tyler Etharidge followed with a double to right and Tate Soderstrom deposited a Whitaker fastball well beyond the right-field fence for a two-run homer.

The Gauchos were starting at an early three-run deficit with no outs in the firts inning. Turlock went on to score six runs in the first two innings and opened a big two-game series against El Capitan with a 9-4 win on Wednesday afternoon at Turlock High.

“That’s a good hitting team,” said Gauchos coach Alex Ruiz, whose team had their six game winning streak snapped and fell to 10-5 overall and 4-1 in the Central California Conference. “If you miss your spots and live up in the zone they are going to make you pay. I’ve heard a lot of good things about them and they lived up to it.”

The nine runs gives Turlock (8-2, 3-0) 40 runs during its current six game winning streak.

The Bulldogs sent eight hitters to the plate in the four-run first inning, collecting five hits. Turlock tacked on two more in the second with the help of an RBI single by Etharidge and a run-scoring double by Soderstrom.

Soderstrom went 3-for-3 with two doubles, the home run and three RBIs.

“The swing has been feeling really good,” he said. “It started feeling good last week and that carried over to today.”

Right-hander Dallin Tilby was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst. Tilby pitched six innings to pick up the win. He had to navigate around four Turlock errors and four walks.

“We came out swinging the bats,” said Turlock coach Mark de la Motte. “Dallin is our number one and he didn’t pitch that well. We got those runs and we kind of survived.”

The Gauchos had an opportunity to get back in the game in the fourth inning. Whitaker had slowed the Turlock offense and kept the deficit to 6-0.

Sai Davuluri and Whitaker led off the top of the fourth with walks. Dylan Webber then singled to left and Ruiz tried to score Davuluri with no outs, but Etharidge fired home from left field to throw out Davuluri at the plate.

Zack Pilkington followed with a single to left to load the bases with one out, but Tilby pitched out of the jam with a strikeout and pop fly.

The Bulldogs put the game out of reach with three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. An RBI single by Justin Hines and two errors by the Gauchos helped Turlock extend the lead to 9-0.

King and Etharidge combined to score five runs for Turlock with King adding three stolen bases.

“We have to show up and play better,” Ruiz said. “We have to know this is a playoff type of game. Yeah, Turlock came out and scored some runs, but we have to do a better job of showing up.”

The Gauchos scored four runs late. A Turlock error allowed two runs to score in the sixth. Mark Sellers led off the seventh with a triple to right and scored on a single by Davuluri to cut the lead to 9-3. Davuluri came around to score on a wild pitch.

Davuluri will take the mound when El Capitan faces Turlock in the second game. With the threat of rain on Friday, the two teams tried to move up the game to Thursday, but there were no available umpires. If the game is rained out on Friday, it will be rescheduled for Saturday afternoon.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Soderstrom, Turlock power past El Capitan in key CCC matchup."