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Baseball team hammered by Timberwolves
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The Ceres High baseball team suffered a humiliating 15-3 loss to East Union on March 9.

Coach Tim Williams thought his team would bounce back against Sierra on Friday. But the Bulldogs turned in another disappointing performance as they lost 16-6 to the Timberwolves at Ceres High School and fell to 2-4 overall.

"Right now, we're not playing good baseball," Williams said.

The Timberwolves scored in every inning except the fifth.

"Every time they got runners on, they scored," Williams said.

Ceres' pitching staff struggled thanks in part to a lack of variation and poor defense.

The Wolves collected 16 hits.

Starter Chad Leazer gave up 10 runs on eight hits and three walks in three innings. He had two strikeouts.

"He wanted to do well," said Ceres pitching coach Greg Magni. "He just tried to hard."

With league play less than a week away, Leazer was trying to secure a spot in Ceres' starting rotation.

"I still think he'll contribute," Magni said.

Mike Arnold gave up four runs on six hits and a walk in three innings of relief. He fanned four batters.

Kevin Goblirsch gave up two runs on two hits and struck out two in the seventh inning.

Sierra scored five runs on four hits and a walk in the top of the first inning.

The Bulldogs battled back as they scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning.

Brian Borges ledoff with a bloop single to right field, moved to third on Brad Simmons' single to center field and scored on Cole Stanhope's groundout to first base. With one out in the inning, Derrick Goblirsch lined a single to center and Simmons scored from second base. Brandon Gresham followed with a walk and Goblirsch scored on Cruz Flores' fly ball, which fell between Sierra's third baseman and shortstop.

Gresham scored on Hector Reyes' infield single to cut Sierra's lead to one heading into the second inning.

Sierra extended its lead to 8-4 in the second inning.

The Wolves outscored the Bulldogs 8-2 in the final five innings.

Ceres collected nine hits in the game.

Stanhope hit a homer and drove in two runs.

Derrick Goblirsch went 2-for-4 with one RBI.

SImmons had one hit and an RBI.

Borges, Gresham, Reyes and Tommy Degenstein each had one hit.

Lancers beat Bulldogs

Ceres kept the game close for two innings. Then the Bulldogs fell apart.

East Union scored nine runs in the top of the third inning en route to a 15-3 victory at Ceres High School.

"That's probably the best team we have faced so far this year," said Williams, whose team lost via the 10-run rule. "They took second at our tournament and beat Johansen yesterday."

Ceres' pitching staff gave up 14 hits and walked 10 batters in five innings.

"Pitching wasn't where it's been," Williams said. "We gave up more runs today than we did all last week."

Starter Derrick Goblirsch gave up nine runs on five hits in 22/3 innings. He walked seven and stuck out one.

Nick Eudy gave up two runs on one hit and three walks in 1/3 of an inning.

Reyes surrendered two runs on eight hits in two innings. He had one strikeout.

Ceres led 3-2 heading into the third-and-decisive inning.

"We left the bases loaded in the third and didn't make a threat after that," Williams said.

The Bulldogs scored one run in the first inning and two in the second.

Stanhope scored from second base on Josh Ahart's single to right-center field in the bottom of the first inning.

In the second inning, Randy Atchison doubled and scored from second on Flores' game-tying double over the center fielder's head. Flores scored on an error to put the Bulldogs ahead by one.

Ceres will play at Golden Valley today and host to the Cougars on Friday. Both games start at 3:30 p.m. "The offense is starting to come along," Williams said. "As long as we can put the defense and pitching together, we'll be fine." - By DALE BUTLER / Staff Reporter of The Ceres (Calif.) Courier