Woodland High School baseball team earns walk-off victory over Casa Roble in game one of D4 semis – Daily Democrat

The entire Woodland High School varsity baseball team runs on the field to congratulate senior Anthony Santos following his walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh inning during the Wolves game one CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D4 semifinal win over Casa Roble on Monday, May 15, at Clark Field. (Carlos Guerrero/Daily Democrat)

The Woodland High School varsity baseball did not make things easy for themselves in game one of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinals.

Errors, errant throws and stranding the bases loaded twice in the first two innings could have made any fan base and team rue the day, but not the Wolves.

In fact, the only effect those issues had on the game was to make their dramatic walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh inning that much sweeter, as Anthony Santos’ double to right field scored two runs, earning the Wolves a massive 9-8 win in the best-of-three series over Golden Empire League rivals Casa Roble, bringing them one step closer to their first section title since 2006.

“Today was a good test to see how we’d respond,” Wolves head coach Danny Eoff said. “We haven’t had that much adversity this year, so for us to battle back, stay true to our game, and play all seven innings as we teach them all year was awesome.”

Woodland came into Monday’s game one matchup at Clark Field after defeating No. 8 seed Liberty Ranch 5-0 in the quarterfinals on Thursday. They enjoyed the perks of being the No. 1 seed with a bye week in the first round of the playoffs, thanks to a 17-1 league record and their first league championship since 2015.

No. 5 seed Casa Roble enjoyed a close 2-1 upset win over the No. 4 seeded Ripon this past Thursday after defeating No. 12 seed El Dorado in round one of the playoffs on May 9.

While the playoffs are a different beast, the Wolves had to have felt confident going into the series after sweeping the Rams in their three league matchups earlier his year by the scores of 3-0, 6-5, and 6-3.

To start the game, the Wolves were just productive enough at the plate to load the bases in the bottom of the first and second innings but not quite enough to score any of them, stranding six runners.

“That (stranding runners) was something we kept mentioning to them every inning as the game went on,” Wolves head coach Danny Eoff said. “We have their pitcher on the ropes, so we have to get the big hits and can’t let them off easy.”

The complete lack of clutch hits early on came back to haunt the Wolves in the top of the fourth inning as Casa took a 5-0 lead.

The first run was scored following an off-line throw from pitcher Lucas Holleron to third base after fielding a soft bunt attempt. With Austin Stapleton waiting at third base for the force out, due to runners on first and second base, Holleron’s throw was just out of reach and sailed into shallow left field, allowing the runner to score from second base and make it 1-0.

A passed ball at home plate to the next batter made it 2-0.

The Wolves’ luck then went from bad to worse after the next batter hit the ball down the third base line and made contact with the actual base, bouncing the ball into the air and just out of the reach of the glove of a diving Stapleton who surely would have at least kept it in the infield. With the ball bouncing into the outfield, the Rams scored and made it 3-0 before adding another and making it 4-0.

One batter later, Woodland looked to be out of the inning after a throw-out at home plate. The umpire, however, brought everyone back out on the field after ruling the Rams runner had been interfered with at second base. The umpire called him safe at home, giving the visitors the 5-0 lead.

The Wolves answered back immediately in the bottom half of the inning after freshman Dylan “The Dr.” Ramirez drove in Gannon Cleaver to cut the lead to 5-1. Senior catcher Carter Imbach then drove in Ramirez before a Stapleton RBI ground out scored Derrick Fisher, who had successfully bunted earlier, making it 5-3

In the top of the fifth inning, the Rams erased the Wolves’ effort by tacking on three runs of their own to extend the lead back to five runs.

The Wolves then did their best to undo what the Rams undid in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring two runs, courtesy of a wild pitch and then a fielding error in center field to make it a manageable 8-5 scoreline heading into the final inning.

Sophomore Joseph Cadotte let off the bottom of the seventh with a crisp infield single followed by a Russell Hanson single. Fisher, who has been a man-possessed the past few weeks, singled to bring home Cadotte and make it 8-6.

Imbach then reached first base on a fielder’s choice after a grounder went straight to the Ram’s third basemen, who went for a force out at second base. However, the throw to second base was not in time and set off a series of fortunate events for the Wolves, with Fisher being safe at second, Imbach safe at first and Hanson scampering home to make it 8-7.

After a pop-up put the Rams one out away from stealing game one, Anthony Santos stepped up to the plate. Santos was unfortunate enough to come in to pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth inning and allowed three unearned runs. He looked for a pitch to pound with those runs undoubtedly on his mind.

“I was just sitting back,” Santos recalled. “I noticed in my earlier at-bats that I wasn’t balanced. I balanced out, and then Casa made the mistake of throwing a pitch right there down the middle to me.”

With the pitch down the middle, Santos connected on a shot over the right fielder’s head for a double, easily scoring Fisher and pinch runner Chris Duffield all the way from first base for an exciting walk-off victory.

As Duffield stomped at home plate, the Wolves’ bench cleared and beelined to absolutely mob and congratulate Santos.

“It was amazing to get the hit, but it wasn’t just on me,” Santos said. “My teammates set it up. If I hit that double with nobody on base, then I’d only have the double, you know?”

“All year Anthony has continued to show confidence in himself both on the mound and at the plate,” Eoff said. “For him to come out and get rewarded like that shows everyone else to be ready and be the next man up.”

Next for Woodland is game two of their best-of-three-game series scheduled for Wednesday, at 4 p.m. in Orangeville, at Casa Roble High School. If necessary, game three will take place on Thursday at Clark Field, with the first pitch set for 4 p.m.

“I’m hoping game two will not be as dramatic,” Eoff said. “I’d love to have a more comfortable win. But knowing that we can come back and scratch runs when we need them shows me we are ready. We are battle tested now.”

“We are confident,” Santos said. “We are the No. 1 seed for a reason, and I feel we are the strongest team out there, no doubt.”