El Capitan healthy in time for Sac-Joaquin Section D-IV title game

Lengthy periods away from the game have become an all-too-regular occurrence for Sammy Mora.

Injuries have plagued the El Capitan High School senior in his young career. His latest setback might have been the scariest of all. After a painful evening of sleep, Mora woke to find he couldn’t walk. A pinched nerve in his back extended down to his knee and forced him to miss the bulk of May.

Mora said the only good thing about the run of injuries is that he’s become an unofficial expert on bouncing back from them. The second baseman is adept at getting his body and mind ready to go for when his health improves. It showed in his return to the Gauchos’ lineup for their Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinal series with Bear River.

Mora singled and doubled in his return while providing solid defense as El Capitan secured its place in Monday’s title game. He wasn’t the only one bouncing back from injury to have a good semifinal showing. Tyler Skelton missed most of April because of a broken finger. He closed Game 1, an 11-4 victory, and then allowed two runs in five-plus innings to earn the win in a 6-3 series clincher.

With the seniors back in the fold, No. 2 El Capitan is fully healthy for the first time in months and playing its best baseball of the season heading into Monday’s showdown with No. 1 Lincoln. The first pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Tony Zupo Field in Lodi.

It’s the second half of a local doubleheader as No. 4 Mariposa takes on No. 2 Ripon Christian in the Division VI championship at noon.

“It means everything in the world to me to be back in time for the playoffs,” Mora said. “It’s my senior year, and this is the game you dream of your whole life. It felt really great coming back and contributing right away. I was just hoping to put some balls in play, so to get two hits was a nice surprise.

“You never like being hurt, but it probably made us a better team. Guys stepped up when Tyler and I were out. They had to or we probably wouldn’t be here.”

Mark Sellers assumed the second spot in the order and has hit safely in 11 straight contests while scoring 12 runs. Chase Whitaker took over Skelton’s spot in the rotation, earning a first-team all-league nod and giving the Gauchos probably the deepest pitching staff of any D-IV playoff team. Even proven stars like Sai Davuluri and Skelton have had their versatility tested, moving around to different positions to help fill holes as they’ve opened.

Gauchos coach Aaron Ruiz agrees with Mora’s assessment.

“It’s really nice to be healthy and have the guys you pictured being here all along in the lineup for the end of the year,” Ruiz said. “At the same time, we challenged some of the young guys to step up and fill some of those holes, and they did a great job with it. You never want injuries, but because of them, we have a much better idea of our depth and guys that we can call on off of the bench to deliver in a big spot.

“Mainly, I’m just happy for Tyler and Sammy to be back for this game. They’re both seniors that helped start this program. It’s nice to see them have the opportunity to go out as champions.”

To accomplish that, the Gauchos (22-7) will have to knock off top-seeded Lincoln (25-6).

The Fighting Zebras won the Pioneer Valley League and outlasted Patterson 2-1 in the other semifinal series.

“We stayed and watched them play the first game of the playoffs,” Ruiz said. “Their middle-of-the-lineup guys can definitely hit, so we’ll have to be careful there. And they have some guys with speed that like to steal bases, so our catchers will have to be aware of that.

“Everybody kept asking me who I would rather have played. Honestly, I told them as long as we play like we’ve been playing the last two weeks, it didn’t matter.”

Ruiz’s players are grateful for the opportunity.

“We started together as freshmen and sophomores three years ago,” Skelton said. “This is where you hope you end up, but you never know. Basically, that original team is still together. It means a lot that we’ve stuck together and accomplished what we set out to do.

“It feels even better that we’re all healthy and everyone gets to be a part of it.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 4:14 PM with the headline "El Capitan healthy in time for Sac-Joaquin Section D-IV title game."