Chowchilla baseball walks off into Central Section second round

Cody Woolsey was having an easy afternoon.

The Chowchilla High School junior varsity call-up’s only responsibilities through the first 6 1/2 innings Tuesday evening were cheering on his teammates and chasing the occasional foul ball.

That changed with the score tied in the bottom of the seventh. With runners on the corners and one out, Chowchilla coach Shawn Grissom went to Woolsey for his first varsity at-bat.

The freshman hit a comebacker to the first-base side of the mound. Delano’s Marcos Bravo fielded the ball cleanly, but instead of trying to turn the possible inning-ending double play or firing to the plate, the senior went with his momentum and threw out Woolsey at first base. That allowed Daniel Beaird to creep home from third with the winning run, setting off a raucous celebration.

The play capped a wild three-run inning for Chowchilla, as it rallied to walk off with a 9-8 victory in the opening round of the Central Section Division IV playoffs. The No. 6 Redskins (15-10) will travel to No. 3 Fowler for a quarterfinal Thursday at 6 p.m.

“Honestly, I didn’t give it a lot of thought,” Woolsey said. “I was just going up there trying to get a hit. I kept it pretty cool for the most part, but there was a moment when I was pretty pumped up.

“As soon as I hit the ball, I knew the pitcher had made a mistake. I got to first and then everybody was charging me. I thought they were going to tackle the crap out of me, but it was a pretty sweet feeling.”

Chowchilla never trailed through six innings, making the rally a jolting necessity.

The Tigers (10-20) refused to have their season end quietly, however, with three runs in the top of the seventh.

Trailing 6-5, Delano quickly tied the score with three consecutive singles. With two on and no outs, Gabriel Ulloa (2 for 3) drove in the tying run and both runners moved into scoring position on the throw to the plate.

Chowchilla sophomore Logan Gomes answered with a strikeout and groundout, but Angel Jasso delivered a clutch two-out, RBI single to put the Tigers in front, and Gomes walked in another run to make it 8-6.

Kobe Nguyen came on to get a bases-loaded strikeout, limiting the damage. It would prove big, as the Redskins rallied.

Gomes belted a home run to left to lead off the seventh. Wyatt Sparkman then reached on a one-out throwing error. Beaird followed with a blast off the base of the right-field wall for his second double. Grissom didn’t hesitate, waving Sparkman home the whole way, but the junior stumbled around third. Sparkman scrambled to get back, and a low throw from catcher Mando Aboytes kicked up the third-base line. Sparkman scored the tying run and Beaird moved to third as the potential winning run to set up Woolsey’s heroics.

“We’ve run the bases aggressively all season,” Grissom said. “Sometimes, it’s cost us, but I believe in forcing the defense to make a throw. It wasn’t exactly how we planned it, but that’s what we forced them to do in the seventh and it worked in our favor.

“This team has really come together the last three weeks. We kind of let league get away from us, but we regrouped and have been preparing for the postseason. Our philosophy is to play a hard seven, and the kids did that today.”

Chowchilla built a 5-0 lead on a Cooper Seals’ run-scoring single in the first and a four-run third. Austin Hickman (two RBIs) capped the surge with an RBI single.

Delano answered with a five-run fourth, but Hickman put the Redskins back on top with an RBI groundout in the fifth.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Chowchilla baseball walks off into Central Section second round."