A few raindrops early in the week impacted the sports schedule for Escalon, but there was still plenty of action for the various varsity and JV squads.
All the spring teams had the opportunity to play, with results following for tennis, boys volleyball, track and field, softball, baseball and boys golf.
TENNIS
Tuesday’s match fell victim to the rain but the Cougar co-ed tennis team took the court Wednesday at home. They hosted and defeated Hughson, 8-1, while also honoring seniors for Senior Night 2025.
In boys singles against the Huskies, Nathan Rose won 6-0, 6-4 and Landon Underwood battled to a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 win. Kali Castellanos won 6-4, 6-4 in girls number one singles and the lone loss of the day was for Violet DaSilva at girls number two singles, falling in straight sets.
Boys doubles action saw Daniel Adams and Luca Cerasi coasting to a straight sets win, as did Maddox Neilsen and Cooper Fugett. Emma Rangel and Marina Franzia won 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 at number one girls doubles and the second girls doubles team of Ashlyn Paxman and Haven MacKinnon was a 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 winner.
Brien Novetzke and Carolina Sandoval took a straight sets win in mixed doubles.
The eight seniors honored were Kali Castellanos, Landon Underwood, Daniel Adams, Cooper Fugett, Carolina Sandoval, Ashlyn Paxman, Maddie Bronska and Annalisa Sanchez. Four-year players for EHS are Castellanos, Underwood, Adams and Sandoval.
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
In a tough week, the varsity volleyball boys lost to the Ripon teams, each game going just three sets.
They fell to Ripon Christian 8-25, 15-25, 14-25 on March 31.
“RC is the strongest team we’ve played all season; we tried our best to hang in there but fell fairly quickly,” said head coach Shay Beam.
Carson Medina had five kills, Mikie Lourenco had three and Ben Ferreira added two. Aydun Melo had six digs from the back row, Medina had seven.
Wednesday at home hosting Ripon, the Cougars came out strong at the beginning of each set, said the coach, but “weren’t able to hold onto the lead” and clinch a win.
Scores were 16-25, 20-25, 24-26.
Preston Berhorst had eight kills, three blocks and two aces; Medina had five kills, while Lourenco and Danny Gonzalez had four kills each.
“Ben Ferreira continues to do well on the court, having three aces, two blocks, 11 digs and two kills,” Beam said.
The JV boys split their matches; falling to Ripon Christian 20-25 and 11-25 before coming back to fight for a three-set win against Ripon, 24-26, 25-22, 15-8.
“Ryder Killingsworth led the week with four aces,” said head coach Alyssa Cogburn. “Noah Martin had 10 kills, Sam Delgado had three blocks, Ryder had 18 digs.”
TRACK AND FIELD
Welcoming Hilmar to Escalon for a Trans-Valley League meet on April 2, head coach Arend Jones said the boys “coasted to a fairly easy win” against Hilmar but the girls fell just a bit short to the Lady Yellowjackets.
There were, however, many new personal bests recorded by the Cougar athletes.
“Senior Nate Millard improved his 800-meter time, moving up in the school record rankings,” said Jones. “Alondra Gonzalez improved in the 100-meter sprint and Megan Silva beat her school records in both the 100- and 200-meter sprints.”
Also, sophomore Jaecy Aldasoro had big PRs in both shot put and discus, along with junior Gloria Segura and senior Cortney Ball in the two throwing events as well.
This week, Escalon will be hosting Hughson, then the team will travel to Hughson on Saturday for an invitational.
SOFTBALL
Some heavy hitting saw Escalon’s varsity softball girls fall to Hilmar by a 12-11 final this past week, then they were shut out by Linden, 10-0. Both games were on the road.
“Despite the rain we were able to get the Hilmar game in with a short rain delay in the third inning,” head coach Caitlin Schulte said. “Madison Babasa led us offensively once again with two homers and two RBI.”
Jayci Trimble went 3-for-4 with a homer and three runs batted in, Arianna Velasco was 1-for-1 with two sacrifice bunts and two stolen bases.
“We battled back in the sixth, scoring five runs but were not able to manufacture runs with the bases loaded in the seventh,” Schulte said of the April 1 game.
The Linden game on April 2, the coach said was a rough outing; the team had just one hit, coming off the bat of Jessy Kesler in the loss.
For the JV girls, they also took two losses, falling 16-3 to Hilmar, 20-6 to Linden.
Mia Bracamontes scored on an error for Escalon against Hilmar; Holley Oliver and Mylah Lehman each had a hit and Kristina Mendoza had an RBI.
In the loss to Linden, big hitters were Victoria Marrufo, going 2-for-2 with two RBI; Brooklyn Dugo and Riley Miranda also had two hits each.
BASEBALL
Just one non-league game was on the schedule for the varsity baseball boys and the JV team did not play.
Varsity head coach Gino Franceschetti said the squad took on Bear Creek in Stockton.
“They were a very good team and they beat us 11-1,” the coach said. “We didn’t necessarily play bad; they were just better than us that day.”
Notching hits for Escalon were Logan Huebner, Brody Abbot and Dylan Ball with a hit and an RBI.
League play resumes this week as the Cougar squads will go to Hughson on April 9 and host the Huskies on Friday, April 11.
BOYS GOLF
Attending the most recent TVL Meet with just four players, Escalon was in sixth place for that tournament.
Dominic Arauza paced the team with a 93 on the day and Donovan Martinez had a 102. Clayton Cox carded a 118, Ethan Tellez a 154.
“We only brought four kids because Matix (Trimble) and Brenden (Berchtold) were gone on school trips,” said coach Brandon Hoover. “Dom (Arauza) had another nice round.”
