BRUIN BASEBALL

BY KARL GRUBAUGHBruin Baseball editor

Ponderosa 2015 season in review

Senior infielder Emory Thompson, above, hits against Will C. Wood High during the Raley Field game in March, which Wood won 8-0. Junior righthander Davis Carlson, left, winds up against the Wildcats. The Pon-derosa baseball pro-gram raised almost $1,500 in its second annual pair of games on the Sacramento River Cats’ home field, and participat-ing families ended up with discounted River Cats tickets to use, sell or give away.

Bruin Baseball photos/KARL GRUBAUGH

Senior Emory Thompson among league’s top hitters

Ponderosa HigH scHool w 3661 Ponderosa rd., sHingle sPrings, ca 95682 w May 2015

FAST FACTSGraduating Seniors

Eight Ponderosa High varsity play-ers ended their scholastic baseball careers this spring and are headed for college this fall. They are:

wAaron Bezdek – Folsom Lake CollegewClay Boswell – Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo wJared Hefner – University of Nevada, Reno wJake Hilliker – CSU Monterey BaywLogan McMahon – Texas WesleyanwAustin Podrabsky – College of the Siskiyous wEmory Thompson – Univer-sity of Nevada, Reno wBrandon Wetklow – Folsom Lake College

Source: Ponderosa baseball staff

The 2015 Ponderosa High baseball seasons came to an end on May 4 with a varsity-junior varsity sweep of Cosumnes Oaks. The varsity, behind a terrific effort by senior starting pitcher Jake Hilliker, beat the Wolfpack 4-3. Junior Garrett Grubaugh got the save with a clutch seventh-inning relief performance, and senior Emory Thompson went 3-for-4 at the plate and scored two runs. The junior varsity beat Co-sumnes Oaks 9-6. The freshmen, who lost to Roseville on May 1, beat Cosumnes Oaks by forfeit.

Varsity season highlightsw1-13 in Capital Valley Con-ference play (8th place); 9-18 overall Senior Emory Thompson led the Bruins in three hitting catego-ries, including batting average (.411, ranked fourth in the CVC), slugging percentage (.625, fourth in the CVC) and on-base percent-age (.528, third in the CVC). Other offensive statistical leaders for the Bruins included senior Logan McMahon, who led the team in home runs (two, tied for second in the CVC) and RBIs (17, ninth in the CVC) and sophomore Scotty Martin in stolen bases (nine in 10 attempts, tied for seventh in the CVC). On the mound, the Bruins were led by junior Garrett Grubaugh, senior Jared Hefner and Martin, who each had two victories (tied for 10th in the CVC). Grubaugh was 2-0 with a save for Ponderosa in 20⅓ innings; Hefner had a 2-4 record in 31⅓ innings; Martin was 2-3 in 26⅓

See REVIEW, page 2

Page 2 Bruin BaseBall May 2015

REVIEW: Ito led Bruins in fielding percentageContinued from page 1 innings, including a complete game. Grubaugh led the team with a 2.07 earned-run average (sixth in the CVC for pitchers with at least 17⅓ innings), and Martin recorded a team-high 25 strikeouts (sixth in the CVC). Junior Logan Ito had a .973 fielding percentage, sixth in the CVC for players with at least 55 chances.

JV season highlights9-5 in Capital Valley Confer-ence play; 17-10 overall Darrec Ditlevsen led the Bru-ins with a .439 batting average. Nick Ousley was the Bruins’ team leader in three offensive categories – runs scored (18), doubles (nine) and stolen bases (15). Daniel Doe had a team-leading 18 RBIs, and Joe Pea-body ranked first for the Bruins with 28 hits. Pitcher Jacob O’Donnell had a team-leading ERA of 1.09.

Frosh season highlights10-4 in Capital Valley Confer-ence play; 20-7 overall Tanner Cleland led the Bruins in batting average (.389). Justin Purdom was the team leader in RBIs (17), runs scored (21), hits (25) and, with BJ Mueller, Jared Beard and Riley Kenel-ler, doubles (each had five). Cody Moore had 13 stolen bases to lead the Bruins, and Keneller had a .527 slugging percentage. Defensively, Andrew Stolsig led the Bruins on the mound with a 1.19 ERA over 35⅓ innings, the most for any pitcher on the squad. Purdom was the team leader, among players who had a minimum of at least 10 chances, with a fielding percentage of .974.

Raley Field game once again a highlight for Bruins On March 10, the Bruins played their second-ever pair of games on Raley Field, the home field of the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats. Both teams played Will C. Wood of Vacaville; the varsity lost 8-0, and the JV lost 3-0. Pondo baseball families raised

Sophomore outfielder Chris Daniels, left, swings away against Will C. Wood at Raley Field. Varsity coach Robert Taylor, below right, prepares to warm up the Bru-ins on the River Cats’ home field. Assistant coach Chris Miller, bottom, and the Bruins follow the action against the Wildcats.

Bruin Baseball photos/KARL GRUBAUGH

almost $1,500 for the Bruin baseball program by purchasing discounted River Cats tickets they can use during the minor-league team’s season. First-ever baseball crab feed a huge successThe first-ever Bruin Baseball Crab Feed, held at the American

Legion Hall in Shingle Springs in February, netted more than $11,000 for the Ponderosa base-ball program. The event, which was coordi-nated by varsity parent LaWanda Loken with assistance from the eight-member parent fundraising committee and many other par-ent volunteers, featured a silent

auction, a live auction, a cake auction and, of course, the crab feed. More than 200 people pur-chased tickets; Seattle Mariners executive Kevin Mather was the keynote speaker. Varsity player Logan Ito won a $100 gift certificate to Bases Loaded in Folsom for selling the most crab feed tickets.