Every play is magnified in a three-game set that could land Sierra anywhere from first place to fourth in the Valley Oak League.
The big play Monday in the series opener with visiting Oakdale was Alex Jones’ go-ahead, three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning, propelling the Mustangs to a 10-5 victory. The Timberwolves (9-5 VOL, 11-11 overall), however, are lamenting the uncharacteristic five errors that led to six unearned runs.
Highly-regarded freshman pitcher Landon Schutte outlasted Sierra’s Tyler Looney in the duel of staff aces, striking out nine in five innings. Leadoff hitter Carlo Antinetti led Oakdale’s attack, going 3 for 4 with a double, two runs and an RBI.
Oakdale (9-4, 12-10-1) has moved to within a game of first-place Central Catholic, while the T’wolves slipped to third with Manteca nipping at their heels. All four teams have qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, but favorable seeds — and the league title — are still on the line in the final week of the regular season.
“Two outs away from winning, and that’s a tough pill to swallow,” Sierra coach Travis Thomson said. “This is a game we thought would be a 1-0 game with two pitchers who have all year thrown really, really well. I think the hitters took that as a challenge on both sides. Against that pitcher today, our at-bats were not bad today. Against that pitcher, I thought our at-bats were great.
“For the first time in a while, it was our defense that kind of let us down today. We’ve got some things to work on. Two sides to the coin — we’re two outs away from beating a good team, so there’s hope there, but at the same time, we have got to make it harder for them to score runs.”
Oakdale, to its credit, did much of its damage with two outs. Antinetti led off the game with a double, and Jordan Haver followed with a bunt single. Looney and the Timberwolves were a pitch away from getting out of the jam, but a throwing error allowed the two runners to score.
In the fifth and sixth innings, Antinetti and Christian Diebner (2 for 4) each hit two-out, RBI single.
Sierra did well to answer the Mustangs’ early blows.
In the bottom of the first, Troy Morrow (2 for 4) led off with a double and was driven home by Jack Cunial (2 for4). Andruw Navarro plated Angel Valdez with a sacrifice fly to right field.
Nikko Camarena and Morrow later drove in a run each with singles to tie the game at 4-4 in the fifth inning. Then in the sixth, Rudy Barney was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to momentarily give Sierra the lead.
“To go down two runs in the first game of the week to these guys could be a death sentence, but our guys immediately tied the game up,” Thomson said. “We’re right on the edge of really competing to win. We just have to make a couple more plays and we’re there.”
Antinetti and Haver got the Mustangs rolling in their game-breaking, six-run seventh inning. Their back-to-back singles with one out set the table for Jones, who took the 2-1 offering from Looney and launched in high to right-center field.
Looney was relieved by Navarro, and the Mustangs tacked on three more run with help from two infield errors.
“We always talk about playing a complete seven (innings),” Oakdale coach Joey Machado said. “This league is tough, and you never know what’s going to happen. Our boys just did a great job of battling and battling, and obviously that home run from Alex was huge. We’ve been preaching a middle-away approach, and obviously with this wind the ball found the jet stream and we got the lead back real quick.”
Oakdale hosts game 2 on Wednesday before the series returns to Jack Thomson Stadium for the finale on Friday.
At this point in the year it’s like a playoff atmosphere,” Machado said. “We’re trying to win one game at a time, and that was the talk out here. We’re going to do everything we can to just win one game and then we’ll pick up the pieces and see where we’re at. I know they’re going to do the same thing. They’re a well-coached team, and Travis does a great job.”
