Turlock takes round one against Buhach Colony

The Buhach Colony High baseball team knew it had to prevent the Turlock’s potent offense from putting up big innings.

It didn’t happen.

The Bulldogs exploded for six runs in the second inning and tacked on three runs in the fifth and sixth to defeat the Thunder 12-5 in a Central California Conference showdown on Tuesday afternoon.

“Big innings are tough,” said Buhach Colony coach Greg Wakefield. “We’ve had our share this year. We had our chances today, but we just couldn’t get the big hit when we needed it. We left quite a lot of runners on base.”

The win moves Turlock (15-10, 11-2 CCC) just one win away from clinching the conference title. The Bulldogs can clinch the CCC championship on Thursday at home against Buhach Colony (13-12, 10-3). If the Thunder win, the title will come down to the final game on Tuesday at Buhach Colony.

“This was a big game for us,” said Turlock’s Trevor Santiago, who drove in three runs. “Now we only have to win one more game to get the CCC title. We’re really looking forward to Thursday’s game.”

Santiago delivered the big blow during the six-run second inning with a bases-loaded double that drove in three runs off of Buhach Colony starter Kory Woods.

“After my first at-bat, I was a little mad,” Santiago said. “I couldn’t let that happen again. I was a good pitch and gave a good swing. I was happy to see it go in the gap.”

Jon Temple, Cody Justus and Peyton Dunseth all drove in runs in the second inning as the Bulldogs scratched out five hits and also turned two walks into runs.

Eight of the nine Turlock starters scored at least runs and eight different hitters reached base at least two times.

“We made pretty good contact up and down the lineup today,” said Turlock coach Mark de la Motte.

Buhach Colony battled back with a run in the second inning and three more in the third.

Turlock starter Damon Treadwell hit Nick Singer and Logan Coe to start the third inning and Christian Witt singled to load the bases.

Woods drove in Singer with a fly ball to right and Ubaldo Romo hit a grounder to second to plate Coe to cut the lead to 6-3. Witt eventually scored on a wild pitch to pull Buhach Colony within 6-4.

The Thunder offense had opportunities to put run all game, as BC tied Turlock with nine hits in the game. The difference was the Bulldogs only left five runners on base and the Thunder left 12.

“Some days are going to be like that,” Wakefield said. “We’ve got to have better at-bats in those situations. We have to make adjustments at the plate and square up a few more balls.”

Walks also hurt the Thunder. Buhach Colony pitchers combined to walk six Turlock hitters and five of them came around to score.

With one out in the fifth inning, Thunder reliever Matt Ramirez loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter. All three runners came around to score with the help of a two-run single by Mitch Pryschuk.

The Bulldogs added three more runs in the sixth inning to extend their lead to 12-4.

“The big inning early really took the pressure off of us,” Santiago said. “They answered back. We knew we needed another big inning and we were able to get it in the fifth and sixth innings.”

Buhach Colony will likely throw Nick Singer in Thursday’s matchup. Turlock will throw either Landon Curtis or Blaine Weber.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Turlock takes round one against Buhach Colony."