baseball - page 2

STOCKTON – Turlock American enjoyed a five-run fifth inning Saturday and Northgate could not recover in an 8-5 opening-round loss in the Section 6 All-Star Tournament at Christa McAuliffe Middle School’s Bruneel Field.

Tony Sanchez had the big bat for Northgate, going 2 for 3 with a pair of ground-rule doubles that knocked in three runs – Travis Rose (two runs) in the third and sixth innings and Colten Nascimento in the sixth.

In the fourth inning Northgate’s Landyn Parker plated Logan Ortega on a fielder’s choice and Kylil Mallory scooted home on a wild pitch.

Turlock used the long ball in the fifth inning – Wyatt Smith belted a two-run home run and Izak Marquez legged out a two-RBI triple.

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Despite Stanislaus County’s current status in the purple tier of coronavirus restrictions, Turlock’s Little League organizations are hopeful that kids will be able to play this spring and are preparing for the season now. 

Youth baseball and softball can’t be played in California until a county is in the red tier of the state’s Blueprint For a Safer Economy, which requires between four and seven daily new COVID cases per 100,000 residents and a 5% to 8% seven-day positivity rate. As of Tuesday, Stanislaus County’s risk level is still considered widespread, with 34.5 new COVID cases daily per 100,000 residents and a 9.1% seven-day positivity rate. 

Once those numbers fall low enough for the county to be in the red tier, considered a substantial risk level, practices can begin for Turlock American Little League and Turlock National Little League baseball, as well as TNLL softball. Both City- and school district-owned fields are typically used to practice and play on as well and cannot be utilized until the county is in the red tier. All three organizations hope that games can start as soon as the first week of April and are currently offering no-cost registration for families.

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The Oakland A’s have been a team on a tight budget for as long as anyone can remember, even longer than anyone can remember, come to think of it.

So it’s not a surprise there are reports the team is telling player agents there is no money available this offseason, considering Oakland’s run to the AL West title last season happened in the fan-free experience that was pandemic America in 2020.

Pandemic only magnified budget issues for Oakland A’s

With gate receipts, the A’s have a hard time scratching out a competitive budget. Without that cash? Woof.

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The hometown hero was on the board. As was the top high-school pitcher for an organization lacking in top-end pitching talent. Nearly ready-made college pitchers, too, were still dangling, legitimate options to step into a taxi squad as soon as this (abbreviated) season.

The Giants made “a pretty easy decision,” Farhan Zaidi said, by passing over all of the above, going with yet another catcher for an organization that has one star catcher and another on the rise.

This is where the pitchforks rise, the mobs calling for Turlock’s Tyler Soderstrom, for young Oregon flamethrower Mick Abel, for Oklahoma’s Cade Cavalli. Let the Giants explain why NC State catcher Patrick Bailey is not causing much second-guessing within the organization.

“Simply put, he was in a spot on our board where — we’re in the business of best available player,” amateur scouting director Michael Holmes said in a Zoom news conference Wednesday night, a successful first venture into the new normal. “It was just too good of a talent for us not to be in play on. Everybody that we sent in to see him — despite the fact it was a shorter season — every guy that came out of there felt really good about his ability, both on the offensive and defensive side. And we really think we got a guy that can impact the game on both sides of the baseball. Guys like that, you can never have too many of them in the system.”

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Learning the game from his father and watching his brother go through the recruiting and draft processes have helped Soderstrom as he prepares for the next step in his baseball career. Soderstrom, a senior at Turlock High School in California, will have to decide between embarking on a professional career this summer or attending UCLA in the fall.

California prep catcher Tyler Soderstrom wasn’t active on the high school baseball showcase circuit until this summer. He played in his home state of California in previous years but knew the summer after his junior year of high school was critical for exposure.

His approach to the high school summers was by design. Growing up in a baseball family, Soderstrom was familiar with the MLB draft process and knew what events were important to improving his draft stock.

He excelled this summer to make him a well-known prospect for the 2020 MLB draft.

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