El Capitan baseball team comes up short in section championship game
The El Capitan High baseball team’s dream of winning a Sac-Joaquin Section Division 3 championship came up a game short.
The seventh-seeded Gauchos, who became red hot over the final month of the season and made an impressive run in the playoffs, fell 3-0 to top-seeded Rio Americano on Wednesday night at Sacramento City College’s Union Stadium. Rio Americano won its first section title in 30 years.
Rio Americano’s Luke Rolli scored Aidan Witt with a line drive to center field to open the scoring in the second inning. Trey Howell-Chase, Rio Americano’s star shortstop and leading hitter, singled to left in the second inning to score Rolli for a 2-0 lead.
In the fifth, Howell-Chase scored on Everett Fillipo’s sacrifice fly to center. Howell-Chase got on with a triple. Joey Dormann earned the win in pitching five innings of one-hit ball. He walked two and struck out two to improve his season record to 10-0.
Conor Flynn pitched two innings of relief, allowing one hit and no walks as the Raiders halted El Capitan’s 14-game winning streak while improving to 27-6.
El Capitan was the No. 7 seed but didn’t play like it. The Gauchos shut out eight of their previous nine teams. This was the second title game appearance for El Capitan, which opened in 2013. The Gauchos lost to Lincoln of Placer County in the 2016 section finals.
Aidan Witt and Angel Rivera had El Capitan’s two hits, and Zach Hunter was admirable in defeat as the pitcher allowed six hits, walked one and struck out six.
The season is not over for the Gauchos (25-7). As the section runner-up, El Capitan qualified for the Northern California tournament, which will be played the first week of June. The seeding for the tournament will be announced May 31.
The Merced Sun-Star’s Jim Silva contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 8:55 PM.
