Marysville’s run ends in deciding 3rd game
STOCKTON – On one of the hottest days of the year, in a town which was officially bankrupt for two years until 2015, the Marysville High baseball team tried to cash in on its Sac-Joaquin Section championship-game potential on Wednesday, but ended up penniless.
Not that the Indians didn’t put a fright into their Golden Empire League rival Capital Christian of Sacramento at Billy Hebert Field. In fact, they won the early contest between the schools Wednesday, forcing a third and deciding game of their Division V semifinal series, then led that game 2-0 midway through the fourth inning.
But that’s when things fell apart. Marysville surrendered seven hits and eight runs in the bottom of the fourth and went on to lose 10-3. Thus ended a season in which the Indians (23-8) won as many games and advanced as far in the post season as any Marysville team in recent memory.
As far as coach Bill Rollins can tell, the only Marysville team with a better finish to its season is the 1983 Div. II section championship squad. Had this team won, it would have played in the Div. V title game on Monday. Instead that honor goes to the Cougars (24-6), which will try to win its fifth consecutive section title.
“It sucks that we lost, but we played Capital Christian very, very hard. Played them with a lot of heart, a lot of emotions,” said Matthew Chiono, one of four Marysville seniors who are four-year varsity performers.
“We had them first game, that was a big motivation. We shut them out through four (of Game 2) and then just the one inning. Still, we never gave up. That was the great thing I love and saw all year with this team.”
Needing a win to stay alive, Marysville beat Capital Christian 6-5 in Wednesday’s opener behind the four-hit pitching of Brian Sullivan and a walk-off, bases- loaded single by Taryn Dolan, which scored pinch-runner Alex Torrez.
In that game, the Indians beat Capital Christian’s senior ace right-handed pitcher Taylor Pon. In the deciding game, Marysville took on sophomore lefty Xavier Carter and picked up where they left off, taking a lead with a run in the top of the first.
Chase Tarr lead off the game with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Chiono. Sullivan then flew out to right center, but it was deep enough in the gap to allow Tarr to advance to third.
Jase Weckman followed by poking a pitch past Carter and up the middle for a single to center, scoring Tarr.
It stayed that way until the third, when Tarr scored again without getting a hit. He was hit, however, by a Carter pitch, went to third on Chiono’s single to center and should have been awarded home when Cougars third baseman Tyler Renn feigned a tag – an illegal move – causing Tarr to slide into third base unnecessarily.
But it was only a matter of time before he scored. Two batters later, Weckman hit a fly ball toward right fielder Tyler Ramson, who perhaps concentrated a bit more on gathering himself for the throw to home plate than catching the ball. When he dropped it, Tarr scored easily, though he still chose to slide.
The score remained the same until the fateful bottom of the fourth. Chiono faced the first four batters and Dolan the next four. By the time Rollins brought Tarr in to pitch, the Cougars had scored seven times without committing an out, and gotten all seven of their singles in the inning.
Some of the hits flew to Billy Hebert’s grass outfield. Others rolled on the stadium’s fast, all FieldTurf infield – even the infield ‘dirt’ is artificial turf.
“They hit a lot of ground balls that found some holes and squared up some balls good,” Rollins said.
“There’s an old saying that 80 percent of the time the team that wins the game scores more runs in one inning than the opposing team scores all game. A lot of baseball is predicated on the big inning.”
The game ended with Weckman getting a solid connection on a pitch by Cougars reliever Brett Graber, only to have his fly ball land harmlessly in right fielder David Jorgensen’s glove.
“It’s just hard to believe that it’s over, that we’re done playing baseball for Marysville,” Weckman said. “Multiple years of varsity and now it just comes to an end real quick. It’s hard to believe.”
In Game 1, Weckman had one of four hits in a four-run Marysville bottom of the third which put the Indians in front 5-2. The Cougars tied it with three in the fifth, but otherwise Sullivan was solid on the mound, retiring the last seven batters he faced.
But the senior watched the final few outs of the second game from the dugout, having been tossed in the bottom of the sixth for saying something from his shortstop position to which the base umpire took offense. That was part of a testy finish to the night which saw the stadium public address announcer admonish fans for directing too much negative chatter toward the field and other patrons.
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