Ninety years ago, on May 17, 1928, the Manteca High Buffaloes will play the Sacramento High School team in that city at 3 o’clock tomorrow afternoon for the Central California Athletic baseball championship. The Buffaloes won the local league championship and were awarded three sub-section championships. The local team became eligible to meet the Capital City nine by defeating the Jackson High team last Saturday afternoon by the score of 8 to 6. Jackson had defeated all other teams in the Mother Lode League and gave Manteca a hard battle. Pete Nascimento, the Buffaloes’ sensational freshman twirler, was at his best.
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80 years ago: May 19, 1938 – Scoring the winning run in the last half of the seventh inning, the Spreckels Honeydews nosed out the Kendall softball squad from Stockton Friday night by a score of 4 to 3. Ed Winters, Honeydews pitcher, retired 13 batters on strikeouts, allowing only three hits.
Milo Candini is beginning to hit his stride as a pitcher on the Norfolk club of the Piedmont League, according to accounts of the game in a Norfolk newspaper received here.
70 years ago: May 19, 1948 – Manteca High blew a one-run lead in the top of the seventh, Livingston High tied the game and went on to score three runs in the top of the ninth inning to gain a 4-1 victory. Bob Wheeler and Dick King had two hits apiece for Manteca.
60 years ago: May 22, 1958 – The Manteca High Buffaloes scored a 6-4 victory over the Turlock High Bulldogs this past Tuesday in an effort to boost themselves in the league standings. Superb pitching by freshman Tim Brumley was the high note of the Buff victory as the little lefty allowed only three hits in his six-inning outing. Bob Silva scored the winning run in the seventh inning on an error. Dave Bordenkircher, Manteca’s catcher, singled twice, drove in a run and scored.
50 years ago: May 17, 1968 – Manteca High’s baseball team made it three in a row over their cross-town rival East Union High Tuesday with an easy 6-0 VOL win. Rich Hardesty held the Lancers to but four hits. EU pitchers Larry Yamasaki and Daryle Waddle held the Buffs to only five hits, two of them by John Leandro.
Local go-karter Dave Knapp maintained his Northern California point leadership Sunday at Fresno in the fifth NorCal championship race of the season.
40 years ago: May 17, 1978 – Lions Club earned the annual Bobby Baldwin Babe Ruth Baseball Tournament crown Sunday when two walks and a hit batsman scored the tying and then the go-ahead run to defeat the Kiwanis Club 4-3. Mike James was hit in the chest by an inside curve ball, forcing in George Clarkson, who had singled to open the inning.
East Union High junior David Perry shot a two-under-par 71 on the La Contenta golf course Monday to earn a berth in the Northern California prep tournament next month at Pasatiempo.
The Manteca High girls’ mile relay team set a new school record at the sub-section trials, clocking in at 4:15.3. The team was composed of Tev Machado, Cathy Wildenson, Callise Cregor and Andrea Negley.
30 years ago: May 16, 1988 – Manteca High’s Eddie Hubik, who went undefeated in VOL tennis competition and won the VOL singles tournament title, was named the league’s Most Valuable Player by a vote of the coaches. East Union High’s Steve Valdez and Mike Sherer joined Hubik on the all-league team, while Manteca High’s two doubles teams of Jon Belluomini/Cam Cardoza and sophomores Tony Mello/Paul Banks were also first-team all-VOL.
With two runners on base, Sheree McKenzie blasted a Tisha Herzfeld fast ball into left field for a run-scoring triple, culminating a rally and lifting East Union High to a spine-tingling 6-5 softball victory over Manteca High Tuesday. With the win, the Lady Lancers won their fourth straight VOL title.
East Union High defeated Manteca High 5-4 in baseball action Friday, the same score the Lancers won by earlier this season. The Lancers ended the season at 17-11, while the Buffaloes finished 8-16. Dan Harper’s single in the fifth inning scored Tony Alexander with what proved to be the winning run.
East Union High’s Tina Alexander notched a third-place finish in the girls’ long jump and Manteca High’s Joe Johnson was a surprise entrant in the boys’ long jump—soaring 21 feet, seven inches—as the local duo became the lone section qualifiers at Wednesday’s Sac-Joaquin sub-section track and field meet at Modesto Junior College. Alexander, a senior, leaped 16-8½.
East Union High placed six players on the VOL baseball team and Manteca High had two. Leading the way for the Lancers on the all-VOL squad were leading hitters Paul Duivenvoorden and Robert Randall and pitchers Tony Alexander and Dennis Gase. Outfielders Larry Richter and David Holmes also landed spots on the first unit. Manteca High’s stellar defensive catcher Kenny Huckaby and infielder Alberto Almeida were the two Buffs on the first team.
20 years ago: May 16, 1998 – The Sierra High boys’ track team backed up their regular season championship by taking home the team title in the VOL championships on Friday afternoon at Modesto Junior College. David Ulibarri was the only double winner for Coach Greg Leland’s Timberwolves, who beat Los Banos High 142-102 in the meet. Ulibarri, a junior, won both the 1600 (4:24.41) and the 3200 (9:45.88), out-gunning EU’s Justin Willingham in each race. In the girls’ competition, EU’s Jaynee Moon stayed unbeaten this VOL season in the shot put and the discus by taking both events, 34-1 in the shot and 123-7 in the discus.
The Sierra High softball team turned in an error-free game as they upset the visiting Los Banos High squad, 4-1. Eryn Zirpel clubbed a two-run double in the fourth inning to snap a 1-1 deadlock. Lady T-wolf pitcher Kristen Huntley took over and scattered seven hits and walked just one batter for the win.
Thanks to six Manteca High errors—four in the third inning—East Union High turned each of the miscues into runs en route to a 6-0 victory over the Lady Buffs at the Northgate Complex, locking up the VOL softball title and the number one seed in the upcoming Sac-Joaqin Section playoffs. EU sophomore pitcher Jennifer Lewallen notched her 20th victory of the season—and 10th shutout—by striking out 11 batters. She allowed only two hits.
The newly-crowned VOL champion Sierra High baseball team tuned up for its first-ever post-season contest by defeating host Sonora High 9-2 Tuesday afternoon in a make-up game. The T-wolves pounded out 10 hits, with reserves playing at least three innings in the game. Jeremiah Whittenton clubbed two doubles and drove in a pair of runs in limited duty.
East Union High softball sophomore sensation Jennifer Lewallen was named the VOL’s Most Valuable Player and Lady Lancer Coach Mike Morenzone was named Coach of the Year during an awards ceremony in Oakdale Tuesday evening. Other Lady Lancers named to the all-league first team incuded Kimi Ota, Jillian Friend, Michelle Phillips and Maisie Ota.
As an undefeated pitcher and league leader in home runs, Sierra High junior Robert Perkins was the VOL’s Most Valuable Player Thursday. Perkins joined his coach Jack Thomson, who was named Coach of the Year, and Luis Almeida, Dan Mahaffie, Troy Vick and Jeremy Cook on the all-VOL first team. Representing East Union High on the all-
VOL team were James Hardcastle, Don Gemmell, Carlos Herrera, Jack Arroyo and Danny Vickers. Manteca High’s sole VOL selection was utility player Paul Rebeiro.
10 years ago: May 22, 2008 – The following MVP’s were named at the annual East Union High Spring Sports Awards ceremonies: Soccer – Theresa Sianez and Natalie Heihn in swimming; Erin Arevalo (softball) and Wade Morten in baseball.
The East Union High baseball team shoveled themselves out of an early nine-run hole en-route to an epic 12-10 victory over Grass Valley’s Bear River High Tuesday at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoffs in Sacramento. Bear River had scored nine runs in the bottom of the first inning, but the Lancers answered with an eight-run rally in the second frame, punctuated by Kurt Johnson’s bases-clearing triple to the center-field wall. Johnson finished 2 for 3 and scored a pair of runs.
