Tracy Press

West High catcher Mike Wentz tags St. Mary’s Beau Riley for the out at home, keeping the game scoreless, during early play at home Wednesday. Photo by Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

The key hits the West High baseball team wanted Wednesday appeared in Friday’s 5-4 win at St. Mary’s.

The win puts West in second place in the Tri-City Athletic League and secures a spot for the Wolf Pack in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs next week.

St. Mary’s had a 3-0 lead going into the sixth inning when West’s Rico Martinez got on base through an infield error.

“We just capitalized on that and came up with three straight hits,” West coach Jim Rice said.
Matt Fontaine, Mike Wentz and Derek Oetken all connected — Oetken’s was a line drive up the middle to bring Martinez home.

With two out, Josh Thomassen came up and blasted a line drive to left-center field to send in two more and tie the score.

St. Mary’s threatened to come back in the bottom of the sixth, but the West infield ended the inning when Michael Rivera, who hit a home run for St. Mary’s in the fifth, grounded to third to end the inning with two runners on base.

West High pitcher Ryan Devencenzi winds up in early inning action against St. Mary’s. Photo by Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

West got runners on base again in the seventh inning, and with two out and two on base, West catcher Mike Wentz connected on a fastball and sent it over the center fielder’s head to score two more and give West the lead.

St. Mary’s came back in the seventh after two batters walked, another hit a fly ball to right for an out, and another got a base hit to load the bases. The Rams got one run in on a sacrifice fly, and the next batter, with two out and the bases loaded, hit a ground ball right to Tyler Shepherd at first base to end the game.

The win puts West at 8-2 in TCAL and 18-9 overall. West finishes in second place in league play, and Friday’s game was the only league loss for first-place St. Mary’s.
West will face Beyer High of Modesto in the first round of playoffs Wednesday at the University of the Pacific. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Tracy-Golden Valley game on May 19.

(S) West 10, St. Mary’s 4

West’s sophomores pulled off an upset Friday at St. Mary’s to end the Wolf Pack’s season (7-3 TCAL, 15-12 overall).

The Pack and the Rams went into the sixth inning tied 2-2 when Griffin Dias and Adam Crandall singled, setting up the bases for Marcus Pedrosa’s line drive over the fence for a three-run homer.

“That was the spark that took us through,” assistant coach Kenny Serrano said.

The blast inspired the team to score five more in the seventh inning.

 “This is the game that I told them they had in them the whole time,” Serrano added.

Taylor Kruger pitched six innings and allowed seven hits. Chris Collins closed the seventh, giving up two base hits, but the West infield ended the game on a double play.

St. Mary’s 3, West 2

Two hits in the third inning and two more in the fourth were all the St. Mary’s baseball team needed for a 3-2 win over West High on Wednesday in Tracy.

The only other hit the West defense allowed was an infield single as the Rams tried to bunt runners around the bases in the first.

West outhit St. Mary’s but also stranded more runners, with bases loaded in the third inning and with two on base in the fourth and fifth.

“We had our opportunities. We just came up short,” coach Rice said before predicting his team’s end-of-the-week win. “Friday we’ll get back after them.”

West’s starting pitcher Ryan Devencenzi tossed all seven innings and gave up five hits.

“Ryan pitched a heck of a game,” Rice said. “We just didn’t support him with our bats.”

One of those few St. Mary’s hits was a Jake Cose double in the third, followed by Michael Rivera’s RBI single. The Rams also got on base with a Louie Lechich single in the fourth and scored two with John Haberman’s home run to right field.

Wednesday’s game saw both teams making key plays in the field to throw out lead base runners.

West got two St. Mary’s runners out in the first inning, one on a throw from shortstop Thomassen to catcher Wentz, who made the tag at home, and another from Wentz to third baseman Fontaine to keep another runner from advancing on a bunt.

West started a rally in the fifth when Thomassen got on base through an infield error and Anthony Salsedo batted him home with a double down the right-field line. Salsedo scored when Tyler Shepherd hit a high bouncer past the Rams’ second baseman. With one out both Rico Martinez and Devencenzi came through with singles to load the bases.

Wentz followed with a fly ball to right field, and Shepherd tagged up at third and ran for home. St. Mary’s right-fielder Michael Bahrenfuss made the catch and fired the ball back to Michael River at home, where Shepherd was called out after a collision.

“They were banging at our door every inning,” St. Mary’s coach Pete Pijl said. “We made the big defensive plays — and we had to.”

West got runners in scoring position twice more but stranded them.

(S) St. Mary’s 8, West 0

Jonathan Townsend’s double was the only hit West could muster Wednesday, while St. Mary’s collected 11 off West’s pitchers.

Starting pitcher Mike Carillo gave up 10 hits and six earned runs, and West also had five errors on defense. St. Mary’s scored in the third, fourth and fifth innings.

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