Tracy Press

 
Tracy dominates in win against Franklin

Tracy High’s Daniel Heefner threw strikeouts early as the Bulldogs jumped out to an early 5-0 lead Friday against Franklin High. Photo by Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

Tracy High’s baseball team expected it would have a tough match against the Franklin Yellowjackets, but the Bulldogs quickly erased any doubt that they would dominate Friday’s game.

The 10-2 win at home puts Tracy at 4-0 in the San Joaquin Athletic Association and 17-3 overall.

Franklin’s pitcher, Jess Covarruvias, who was second in the league for earned-run average after Tracy’s Kyle Moses, gave up two walks, and Justin Evans got on base with a bunt and an infield error.

Then, cleanup batter Vince Canale stepped up to drive the ball through the gap between third base and shortstop, scoring Stevie Ramos and Evans, and B.J. O’Bryan came up to drive in Ryan Scornaienchi and Canale.

“Our guys did an excellent job of being patient with him,” Coach Vic Alkire said. “We made him throw the ball over the plate. We didn’t chase anything.”

For good measure, Jacob Valdez hit a solo home run over the center-field fence to lead off the second inning, and O’Bryan led the third with a double and rounded the bases on wild pitches to score for Tracy.

The ’Dogs scored twice more in the fourth, and in the sixth Evans got on base with a walk and Scornaienchi pounded one over the high center field fence to score the Bulldogs’ ninth and 10th runs.

Meanwhile junior starting pitcher Daniel Heefner threw his first complete game of the season and gave up no hits until the fourth inning, when two Franklin batters singled and the Yellowjackets’ Gabe Martinez drove in both runners with a shot to center field. The throw to the plate to prevent the second run wasn’t in time, but catcher Johnny Espana fired the ball back to second as Martinez tried to stretch his hit into a double and threw the runner out to end the inning.

Tracy High third baseman Preston Mattos jumps in front of the bouncing ground as he gets ready to throw out a Franklin runner. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

Heefner said he and pitching coach Tony Crivello have worked on his delivery, and for this game, he changed his throw to make his changeups more effective. He added that the work paid off against a team that usually hits the ball well.

“I faced them last year and they were good, but we beat them, so that gave me some confidence,” he said.

Heefner struck out six and got help from the infield, including double plays to end the fifth and sixth innings, plus a couple of pickoff throws from relief catcher Kyle Hassna in the sixth and seventh innings.

(S) Tracy 14, Franklin 2

Tracy pitcher Alex Flores kept the Yellowjackets scoreless for four innings and allowed three hits in five innings Friday at Monte Vista Middle School to lead his team to another win. Tracy is now 4-0 in the SJAA and 19-1 overall. Among the 12 hits for the Bulldogs was a triple from Robert Emerson. Robbie Jackman went 3-for-3 and Jonathon Combs went 2-for-3.

West 16, Edison 0

West High’s Ryan Devencenzi beats the pick-off throw back to first in the Wolf Pack’s shutout of Edison. Photo by Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

West went for a win on the road against Edison after beating the Eagles at home Wednesday. This time, starting pitcher Ryan Devencenzi went all seven innings and struck out 17 Edison batters, including 11 in a row.

West is 4-0 in the Tri-City Athletic League and 12-7 overall.

West coach Jim Rice said Devencenzi used the inside curveballs and fastballs to again shut down the Edison offense.

“We were effective against them on Wednesday with that, so we came back with the same stuff,” Rice said.

The West batters put the ball in play all over the field. West got an early lead and then scored big in the sixth and seventh innings when Rice pulled some players off the bench.

West High’s Riley Goulding throws another strike in early inning action during a game against Edison. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

The Wolf Pack got big hits from Mike Wentz, who hit a double and a triple and drove in three; Anthony Salsedo, with two doubles and two RBIs; Tyler Shepherd, with two hits, including a triple, and five RBIs; Taylor Warn, who batted twice and got two base hits; and Matt Fontaine, who hit a triple for the Pack.

(S) West 7, Edison 2

Taylor Kruger pitched seven innings, allowed three hits and struck out nine Friday at Edison.

Jordan Devencenzi had three hits in four trips to the plate. He hit two triples, but was thrown out at the plate when he tried to stretch one of them into an in-the-park home run in the fifth.

Also hitting for the Wolf Pack were Grant Gentry, Jeff Koury, Clyde Parilla and Jacob Lopez.

West is 4-0 in TCAL and 12-8 overall.

Elliot Christian 10, Millennium 0

The Millennium High baseball team lost on the road Thursday at Elliot Christian High in Lodi.
The Falcons’ Jake Vierra and Chris Ybarra got both of Millennium’s hits but faced some tough pitching the entire game.

Assistant coach Drew Reyes said that in spite of six errors and nine Elliot batters walked, the Falcons’ defense made some key plays to leave eight of the Eagles’ baserunners stranded.

“Our pitchers did a pretty good job of getting out of trouble,” Reyes said.

Elliot scored consistently, though, and while the Eagles didn’t have any big hits or big rallies, they did get most of their 10 hits while runners were on base.

 
West 4, Edison 1

By the time the Edison Vikings’ half of the first inning was over Wednesday, West starting pitcher Riley Goulding had given up one hit and one run.

After that, all the Vikings would get from Goulding was his curve ball, which started off inside and veered right over the plate. They also got his fastball and an assortment of other pitches to strike out 14 Edison batters in West’s 4-1 win.

The West junior, who usually takes the reliever’s role after Matt Fontaine or Ryan Devencenzi starts the game, shut down the Vikings’ offense from the second inning through the seventh, including two innings when he struck out three in a row.

“I felt like I could put any pitch anywhere I wanted,” he said. “Everything was working today.”

The Edison team didn’t go down for lack of effort. Once they figured out the break on the ball, Edison coach Joaquin Fernandez urged them to take more swings, but they still couldn’t get the hit.

The Edison batters Goulding didn’t strike out were handled by the West infield, including Fontaine at third base and shortstop Josh Thomassen, who snagged a hard grounder in the sixth.

West scored twice in the first inning after Thomassen got on base through an infield error and advanced and then scored on passed pitches. Anthony Salsedo walked and made it home on an infield single by Fontaine, but Edison ended the first and second innings on double plays.

Salsedo scored again in the third after he walked, advanced on a steal and ran home on a Devencenzi single up the middle. He scored one more time when he drove the ball out to the right-center fence and sprinted around the bases for a triple.

“I was thinking ‘fastball’ and he threw middle-out,” Salsedo said. “Right when I hit it, I was thinking ‘three.’”

He got home on Devencenzi’s sacrifice grounder for West’s fourth run.

(S) West 11, Edison 0

Chris Collins pitched four innings and allowed one hit for the Vikings on Wednesday at West High, and Griffin Dias closed the last inning with no hits and two strikeouts.

Jonathan Townsend, Jordan Devencenzi and Taylor Kruger each drove in two for the Wolf Pack, and Jeff Koury and Clyde Parilla got multiple base hits for the day.

(F) West 10, Tokay 9

It started out as a close game, and the lead shifted back and forth. West had a 9-8 lead going into the top of the seventh inning — which is when the Tokay Tigers tied the game at 9 all during play at West High on Monday.

West got runners on base, including D.J. Watson on second.

The coaches gave Watson the sign to steal third, and Tokay’s catcher missed the throw as Watson slid into the base.

“D.J.’s a real fast runner, so he got up and took off,” coach Vince Vargas said.
West got its hits from Joey Wagner, Sal Alvarado and Eric Gleese, who hit a double and a triple.

Tracy 14, Franklin 5

Tracy’s leadoff batter Stevie Ramos sent the first pitch of Wednesday’s game for a high drive over the right-field fence. It set the pace for the rest of the four-run first inning and gave Tracy enough of an advantage that Franklin couldn’t catch up.

Tracy extended its lead in the seventh inning, which included Vince Canale’s two-RBI triple. Canale had two RBIs in the second as well, and Justin Evans, B.J. O’Bryan and Tyler Silva also drove in runs.

Coach Vic Alkire said the key to the game was a familiar story. Reliever Bret Maddox took over in the second inning, pitched 4-2/3 innings, gave up one hit and no runs, and struck out six Franklin batters.

“A lot of his wins have been where other pitchers started and Bret comes in and shuts the door on the other team,” Alkire said.

The Bulldog senior is 8-0 this year.

Maddox has the third lowest earned-run average in the league, 1.861 over 26-1/3 innings. First is Tracy freshman Kyle Moses, who has given up no earned runs in 15-2/3 innings, and second is Franklin’s Jess Covarruvias, 1.524 over 41 innings.

Tracy is now 3-0 in the San Joaquin Athletic Association and 16-3 overall.

(S) Tracy 16, Franklin 4

Alex Flores homered in the first inning and hit a triple in the second. In all he batted in five of Tracy’s runs. Dominik Nazario specialized in getting Tracy’s rallies going again with two outs in an inning as he got three base hits and batted in three. Robbie Jackman also got three hits and drove in two.

The winning pitcher was Jackman as reliever, who gave up no hits and one run in three innings.

• For more prep baseball results, visit www.tracypress.com. To reach Sports Editor Bob Brownne, call 830-4227 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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