Atwater clinches share of first CCC baseball title in 35 years with win over El Capitan
For the first time in 35 years the Atwater High baseball team celebrated a Central California Conference championship on Friday night.
Falcons ace Bo Valladao pitched five innings to pick up the win and the offense broke up the game with five runs in the bottom of the second inning as Atwater defeated El Capitan 9-2 at Memorial Ballpark.
It was the Falcons’ first CCC championship since 1987.
“The way this season went, to win a league championship with this group is pretty special,” said Atwater coach Jarrod Pimentel. “We weren’t picked in the preseason to win a league championship, but this team just has a lot of fight in them.”
Atwater, El Capitan and Buhach Colony, which defeated Patterson 15-0 0n Friday, all finished a co-CCC champions with a conference 9-3 record.
After losing 9-0 on Wednesday to the Gauchos (19-9 overall), the Falcons (19-7) jumped on El Capitan early with two runs in the first inning as Cole Hazel squeezed in Henry Warden with the first run and then KJ Ross later followed with an RBI double.
Pimentel said they wanted to score early on Friday after getting shutout in the first game of the series.
“We just wanted to a get a run to get that monkey off our back,” he said. “We had our No. 3 hitter up (Hazel) and you don’t normally squeeze there, but we just wanted to get something started.”
The Gauchos then made mistakes on defense that opened the door for the five-run second inning that extended the lead to 7-0.
Ross led the Falcons’ nine-hit attack with two hits and two RBIs. Hazel scored three runs.
Valladao struck out six and gave up just one earned runs on six hits in five innings. Garrett Sanchez came in relief and pitched two scoreless innings.
“Bo has been like our ‘Iceman’ on the mound this year,” Pimentel said. “With a big game, under the lights and a big crowd, he’s done it for us all year.”
Both El Capitan and Atwater will wait to see who they will face in the playoffs next week.
Buhach Colony 15, Patterson 0 — Senior Cooper Lanz threw a perfect game, retiring all 15 hitters he faced as the Thunder (21-7, 9-3 CCC) earned a three-way share of the CCC championship with El Capitan and Atwater.
Lanz struck out nine batters in a game that was stopped after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.
It’s the 12th league championship in the Thunder baseball program’s history.
Buhach Colony pounded out 16 hits on offense. Ramiro Jimenez led the way with three hits, two runs and four RBIs. Kadyn Fillebrown also had three hits and two runs. Lanz and Jaxson Percoats both added two hits and two RBIs for the Thunder.
The Thunder now await to see who they will open up the playoffs against next week.
