Ceres High’s and Central Valley’s varsity boys tennis programs both suffered losses during the opening week of Western Athletic Conference play.

Shorthanded Ceres High fell 7-2 at Patterson on March 15.

The Bulldogs had to forfeit all three doubles matches to the Tigers due to their thin roster.

“Our backs were up against the wall to start,” said Aubrey Ford, Ceres High’s new head coach. “It’s a bummer we don’t have more kids. One of our players has night school. He can only go to home matches.”

Chris Padilla and Tarandeep Singh accounted for the Bulldogs’ two team points.

Padilla won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 2 singles.

Singh won 6-2, 6-1 in No. 5 singles play.

Ceres High’s Christian Pimentel, Darren Polanes, Juan Hernandez and Manuel Pimentel dropped their respective matches.

Pimentel lost 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 singles.

Polanes lost 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.

Hernandez lost 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-4 at No. 4 singles.

Pimentel lost 6-3, 7-5 at No. 6 singles.

Los Banos topped Central Valley, 9-0, on March 15 in Ceres.

The reigning WAC-champion Tigers swept all six singles and three doubles matches in shutting out the Hawks.

“Los Banos is the best team in the league,” Central Valley head coach Mike Rodriguez said. “They have a lot of returners back from last year. I was hoping to make it competitive.  The kids played hard. That’s a positive.”

Juan Zaragoza lost 6-2, 6-0 to Quentin Barcellos in No. 1 singles play.

Adrian Gomez lost 6-3, 6-2 to Andy Liu in No. 2 singles play.

Ivan Jimenez lost 6-2, 6-1 to Jared Haug in No. 3 singles play.

Luc Arce lost 7-6, 6-3 to Will Marchese in No. 4 singles play.

Andy Souksavath lost 6-0, 6-3 to Ethan Machado in No. 5 singles play.

Rosendo Rojas lost 6-0, 6-0 to Kyle Jackson in No. 6 singles play.

BOYS GOLF
    Ceres High’s and Central Valley’s varsity boys golf programs placed first and fifth, respectively, during the Western Athletic Conference’s season-opening cluster tournament on March 15 at Modesto’s St. Stanislaus Golf Course.

The two-time reigning WAC-champion Bulldogs (360) bested the crosstown-rival Hawks (432) by 72 strokes.
Patterson (387), Livingston (399), Los Banos (430) and Pacheco (549) finished second, third, fourth and sixth, respectively, in the team standings.

“We didn’t play great as a team,” said Gary Condit, Ceres High junior/2017 WAC Most Valuable Player. “But we got the win. That’s all that matters.”

“We were quite a few strokes ahead of the team behind us,” said Scott Edwards, Central Valley’s new head coach. “That’s a positive.”

Condit led all scorers with a 6-over-par 62.

Bulldog teammates/returning first-team all-conference selections Jake Nevarez (69), Jayden Panyanouvong (71) and Braden Hurst (75) took third, fourth and seventh, respectively, in the individual standings.

Ceres High freshman Visanoukone Homsombath (83) placed 14th.

Kadin Richardson fired an 80 while finishing in 14th place to lead the Hawks.

Central Valley’s Thomas Carrillo (82), Aman Dosanjh (83), Jacob Hendrix (87) and Navraj Dosanjh (100) placed 15th, 17th, 22nd and 29th, respectively.

“A couple of our golfers weren’t happy with their scores,” Edwards said. “They’re going to work harder to get better.”

BASEBALL
    Ceres High’s varsity baseball team lost 1-0 to host Atwater in extra innings on Friday.

The Bulldogs dropped to 4-6 on the year.

The Falcons improved evened its record at 5-5.

Ceres High starting pitcher Adrian Magdaleno was effective on the mound but had to settle for a no-decision.

Magdaleno surrendered no runs and three hits with three strikeouts and two walks over eight innings.

Sophomore Isaiah Alcorn gave up one run and two hits in one-third inning of relief.

The Bulldogs collected two hits, struck out five times and stranded 11 runners on base while struggling on offense versus the Falcons in non-league play.

Sophomore Josh Pernetti and senior Austin Schmidt both singled.

Atwater broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Cody Rhoads raced home on Nathaniel Silva’s walk-off double.

Cougars 8, Hawks 0
    Central Valley’s varsity baseball team lost 8-0 to Golden Valley in non-conference play on Friday in Merced.

The Hawks dropped to 4-6-1 overall.

The Cougars improved to 3-4.

Central Valley mustered just two hits with 11 strikeouts against Golden Valley.

Alex Solis and Robert Garcia both singled.

The Hawks never recovered after surrendering four runs in the bottom of the first inning.

The Cougars scored one run in both the second and fourth, and two in the fifth.