Robbie Lewis and Kevin Miller celebrate a big win over Ceres.

Ike Dodson/Sun Post 

As the rest of Manteca High’s baseball team filed into the home dugout for their last at-bats of the game, designated hitter Robbie Lewis approached his coach with a firm resolution following a disastrous top-of-the-seventh that awarded Ceres a late 6-4 lead.

            “We are not going to lose this game,” Lewis told coach Neil MacDannald.

            He was right.

            Lewis singled to open the inning and scored with two others in a thrilling 7-6 victory over the visiting Bulldogs on Wednesday, April 23. Manteca’s DH finished 3-for-3 with two runs in the pivotal Valley Oak League contest.

            “(Robbie) is one of the best leaders on this team,” MacDannald said. “He told me straight up that we were not going to lose this game, and he truly believed it.”

            The Buffs trailed 3-2 until a two-run fifth, and overcame three Ceres scores in the top of the seventh frame.

            In Manteca’s final ups, Lewis reached second on an Aaron Adolf single and SammyJorgensen walked to load the bases with no outs against freshman reliever, Tyler Cummings. Ricky Acosta powered a line drive off Cumming's mitt and Lewis beat the force at home for a one-run deficit. A strikeout later, Kevin Miller recorded a walk to score Acosta and tie the game. Toby Fox sent the ball in play an at-bat later to end the game on an errant throw to the plate.

            “Luckily when the chips were down, everyone came through and we got the job done,” Lewis said. We don’t like to lose at home and we made up our minds that we were going to do what we had to, to win."

            Eric Watts threw a complete game with five hits allowed, two strikeouts, two walks and two hit batters. Manteca belted 11 hits in the contest, and saw a 2-for-5 day from Acosta and a two-RBI double from Beau Fryer.

             “I think we have a lot of seniors on this team that have fought this battle last year,” MacDannald said. “I really believe that this season has progressed to make those players good leaders.”

            With Sierra (5-4) and East Union (5-4) both losing on Wednesday, Manteca vaults into second place at 6-3 in the VOL.

            “We all have gauntlets to go through before the end of the season, so it’s a little bit early to be standings-watching,” MacDannald said. “There are still five games left, so we have to take care of our business and see where we are at the end.”

            The Buffs will wrap up the two-game series at Ceres today, April 25.

Sonora 7, East Union 4

            The Lancers led 4-2 after five innings, but gave up five runs in the sixth for the loss. The Lancers out-hit Sonora 10-9, but committed three costly errors.

            East Union (5-4) will host Sonora today to wrap up the series.

Oakdale 9, Sierra 2

            Sierra scored both runs in the bottom of seventh, but could not match Mustang scores in all but one at-bat.

            Oakdale led 5-0 after two innings and added four in the final three frames for the healthy lead.

            Jordan Louie was 1-for-3 with a double and run while Mike Garcia managed Sierra's only other hit.

            Andrew Gabriel started on the hill and tossed five innings with four earned runs. Austin Nogueira allowed no earned runs in two innings of work.