Yuba City stricken by Woodcreek's D-I talent: Honkers lose first two to CVC's second-place team

Apr. 12—Maury Castaneda knows that this time of year he and the Yuba City High baseball team are going to have to face, and find a way, to get past some of the premier teams in Northern California.

The Capital Valley Conference each year is stacked with teams ranked among the leaders in the Sac-Joaquin Section and state each spring, starting with perennial power Woodcreek, a team that Yuba City welcomed in on Thursday at Winship Field on the campus of YCHS.

Woodcreek, a squad destined for the SJS playoffs again, came in ranked 12th in the SJS full rankings published each Monday by MaxPreps.com. The Timberwolves also boast three players headed D-I in the fall, including a pair en route to the Southeastern Conference.

Yuba City probably saw too much of Conner Barth (Mississippi State-bound) and Austin Nye (Vanderbilt-commit) during an 11-7 loss to the Timberwolves to fall 0-2 in the CVC three-game set.

The teams met in the finale Friday, but the outcome finished past the Appeal deadline. A full recap will be made available next week.

For Castaneda, while the Woodcreek series did not go as planned, he feels Yuba City (10-10, 5-6 CVC) is in a good position to make a run for the third and final automatic berth into the playoffs next month.

"CVC is a tough league, there isn't any gimmies," he said. "We got some youth and it showed today."

One of the issues that Castaneda needs to remedy is Yuba City's consistency, or lack thereof — a byproduct of youth, he said. The Honkers struck first on Woodcreek out of the gate, leading 4-1 thanks in part to the first of three extra-base hits from Kaedin Bulock to give YC the three-run lead in the second.

"I liked the way we played today, we put seven runs on a great team," Castaneda said. "We strung hits together, just defensively we got to make the right play at the right time and we didn't. I think that was the difference. We threw an 11th grader (on the mound), our infield was 11th graders and a 10th grader at short, so exciting times coming. This is going to pay dividends in the future, I know it hurts now but it is going to help us."

Woodcreek (11-6, 7-1 CVC) found itself in the fourth and scored six off starter Eliaja Moncher and company to pull ahead 7-4. Barth drove in a run on a single to left to tie the game at four with two outs, while Nye stroked a two-out double to give Woodcreek a 5-4 lead. Moncher allowed a pair more, causing the Yuba City junior righty to be chased off the hill for Pete O'Farrill. The Honkers would get one back in the fifth before Barth struck again — this time putting a ball over the right-field fence for a solo opposite-field homer (his of his career) to give Woodcreek an 8-5 advantage in the top of the sixth. Barth finished with three hits and two RBI, while Nye had a trio of base hits and two doubles to lead the Timberwolves.

"They don't get any better than that," Castaneda said. "It was fun watching (Barth), he had a cut on a 3-0 count and my toes were curled ... He missed but I think he would have hit it to Starkville if he would have got a hold of it. That's a really good team over there we played today, I'm just glad most those guys are graduating."

Meanwhile, Woodcreek's starter, Daniel Lang, settled down after an early four-run outburst to give up just one over the next three innings before giving way to Dane Wyles to shut the down on Yuba City in the sixth and seventh innings.

Yuba City will move forward next week when CVC leader Bella Vista (13-2, 10-1) comes to town Tuesday and Thursday for 6 p.m. starts at Winship before heading to Fair Oaks next Friday to complete the series.

Currently, Yuba City trails Roseville by percentage points for the third and final playoff berth out of the CVC.

The next week, Yuba City hosts its senior night against 16-2 Vista del Lago, a team ranked 26th in the section and tops in the Capital Athletic League, on April 24 at 6 p.m.

Vista del Lago defeated Yuba City, 9-5 earlier this season in a tournament.

"The season looks good, I'm still excited," Castaneda said. "We love to play baseball and we love to play anybody. Vista del Lago is good, we get to rematch them and maybe avenge a loss."

Other scores Thursday

Baseball

Marysville 10, Center 4

Benjamin Barajas (M) 4 hits; 3 runs

Andrey Palomo (M) 3 hits; 2-2b

Sutter 10, Wheatland 1

Logan Yacavace (SU) 3 hits; 2b

Carson Bishop (SU) 2 hits; 2b

Brady Wickum (SU) 2 hits; 2 rbi

Rylan Giovannoni (SU) WP

Inderkum 6, River Valley 2

Holton Williams (RV) 2 rbi

Softball

Faith Christian 20, Valley Christian 4

Ambor Smith (FC) 4 hits; 6 RBI

Zaina Betancourt (FC) 3 hits

Hannah Bliss (FC) WP

Yuba City 13, Roseville 3

Alexia Alvarez (YC) 3 hits

Taylorlyn Anderson (YC) 3 hits; 2 rbi

Tori Hernandez (YC) WP

Sutter 24, Center 0

Bear River 7, Marysville 3