The Ceres High junior-varsity baseball team's two-game series sweep of El Capitan provided an exclamation point on a memorable season.
The Bulldogs succeeded this year without the services of standouts Haaydn Martinez, Ricky Lopez and Ismael Ontiveros, who were all promoted to varsity.
"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Ceres High leader Bill Campbell said. "This is the most talented group of kids I've ever coached. We stayed humble this year. We were very quiet about our success. We stayed off social media."
The Bulldogs closed out the 2015 season with a two-game series sweep of El Capitan last month.
Ceres High won 4-0 on May 5 in Merced and 10-0 in Ceres on May 4.
The Bulldogs collected 24 wins, two losses and one tie this year.
Ceres High and Los Banos shared the Western Athletic Conference title with identical 11-1 records.
Host Ceres High lost 5-1 to Los Banos on April 1.
The Bulldogs bounced back with an 11-8 win over the Tigers on April 2 in Los Banos.
"That's a huge accomplishment," Campbell said while talking about his team's run of dominance in conference play. "I'm proud of what these kids have done this year. We accomplished our goals. It's been a fun ride. Maybe we can win it (the WAC title) outright next year."
Ceres High's roster featured 13 players: Austin Schmidt, Zachary Kommavong, Andrew Nowaya, Nicholas Jones, Tyler McCue, Blain Abeyta, Darius Meas, Adrian Magdaleno, Gabriel Jimenez, Joe Valenzuela, Adrian Lujan, Nicholas Webb and Cristian Palafox.
Jones (So.) and Magdaleno (Fr.) were Ceres High's two starting pitchers.
Magdaleno tossed a perfect game in a 12-0 five-inning win over visiting Livingston on April 22.
Ceres High outscored its opponents, 274-73, this season.
The Bulldogs had more than a half-dozen comeback victories.
Ceres High won its final nine games.
"We battled all year long," Campbell said.
Ceres High's JV and varsity baseball teams had a combined record of 22-2 in WAC play. The varsity Bulldogs captured their second straight conference title.
"We had a spectacular year," Campbell said. "Our pitching and defense kept us in games. Our bats were working. Everything went right for us this year. We're here to develop the kids for varsity. We're really working hard with the youth program so they're ready once they get to high school."
