Not every story gets the perfect ending.
Ripon Christian baseball had already authored the best season in program history, pairing a school-record win total with the program’s first Trans-Valley League title. Elliot Christian softball went from nearly not having a team to winning the Mountain Valley League.
All that was left was one final win.
Neither got it.
In the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section finals at Delta College on Saturday, May 23, two dream seasons came to an end as No. 1 Ripon Christian (28-4) lost 4-1 to No. 2 Amador (25-5-1) in Division VI, while No. 2 Elliot Christian (11-4) fell 12-2 to No. 1 Le Grand (19-7) in Division VII.
“I’m not sad because of that score at the end,” Ripon Christian coach John deVisser said. “I’m sad because I don’t get to see them Monday. This has been top two or three in the 18 years I’ve been doing this. I can’t wait to leave my shop in Oakdale to come to practice. Everybody really, really enjoys being around each other.”
Elliot Christian coach Mike Stallings added, “I’ll never forget this group’s will to win. They always played loose. They weren’t even tight today. Somebody’s got a picture of them laying out here on the grass just talking, and I’m like, man, I can barely sit still. Their composure, along with their chemistry, is what I’ll miss most.”
‘I’m sad because I don’t get to see them Monday’
Ask deVisser before the season if this was a championship team, and he would’ve pointed to next year.
Five starters were sophomores. The only two senior starters were transfers.
But the leadership of Jackson Howell and Maxx Anderson, paired with the makeup of the younger core, sped up the timeline.
“We are not 28-4 without those two seniors,” deVisser said. “Without those guys, the rest of the squad is not where we are right now. Period.”
By the time Ripon Christian got here, deVisser knew they had a chance. And they did.
They just couldn’t take advantage of it.
“It’s my fifth one of these things,” deVisser said. “I’ve won two of them. All you can do is try to give yourselves an opportunity for the offense to come through. We just didn’t today. They did, we didn’t.”
Sophomore Stadtler Postma’s RBI single in the first gave the Knights a 1-0 lead.
From there, the offense went quiet until the sixth.
That left sophomore Trenton Cloward doing all he could, throwing a complete game while allowing five hits, three earned runs and striking out five.
“Cloward kept us in it the whole time,” deVisser said. “Every hit they had was a ground ball. Every time they hit something in the air, we caught it. Well, I take that back.”
The one exception came in the third.
Amador pitcher Brad Blankenheim opened the inning with a double.
Then came two ground-ball singles Ripon Christian likely should’ve turned into outs.
Instead, the first pushed Blankenheim to third. The second tied the game.
With two outs, even a successful rundown wasn’t enough. Amador got caught in a pickle, but not before the runner from third crossed to make it 2-1.
“We had a couple of gaffes out there,” deVisser said. “I think a one run ball game late, and we probably have this thing. We gave up a couple extra.”
In the sixth, the “gaffes” continued.
A run scored on an error by catcher Noah De Bruyn.
Later in the same at-bat, a slow roller to Cloward couldn’t be handled cleanly, forcing him to settle for the out at first instead of a play at home.
Still, even down 4-1, the Knights had chances in the final two innings.
“Blankenheim really pitched well for them,” deVisser said. “I don’t think he’s gone that long in weeks. His velocity was really solid. He had two different types of breaking balls that were giving us a little trouble.”
Ripon Christian loaded the bases in both the sixth and seventh.
Neither rally produced a run.
“We’ll have an opportunity next year to hopefully keep this thing rolling that we started this year,” deVisser said.
‘We’ll be back’
Before the season, Elliot Christian was just trying to field a team.
A surprising spot for a program that won eight straight Sac-Joaquin Section titles from 2005 to 2012.
But with only 58 students in the entire school, scraping together a 10-player roster wasn’t simple.
“They worked hard,” Stallings said. “To have four girls who had never played softball before on the team and still get here says a lot. They were Division VI finalists last year, and why they’re in Division VII, I have no idea. But that’s a good team. We had a couple bad innings and gave them too many outs.”
The worst of those came in the third.
Trailing just 1-0, the Eagles surrendered six runs.
A team that lost three of its first four games before winning 10 straight wasn’t going to roll over, though.
In the fourth, senior Isabella Ramirez hit an RBI double, and junior Sophia Marino reached on an error to bring home another run, making it 7-2.
“When we made it in 2015, the school had 200 children,” Stallings said. “It makes it much easier to find kids. So I’m super proud of these girls. They came a long ways. I wanted to win for these kids because they’ve worked hard, so it’s a little bit of a gut punch to lose. We competed, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Le Grand ended it by mercy rule in the sixth.
One final score, however, won’t define this season in Stallings’ eyes.
Freshman pitcher Juliet Goodpasture struck out 144 batters while hitting .447.
Juniors Ashlyn Anderson and Kelsey Gretsinger batted .442 and .419, respectively.
Even with senior catcher Isabella Ramirez graduating after hitting .321, Stallings believes Elliot Christian will reload.
“We’ll keep going,” Stallings said. “We’ll be back.”
This article originally appeared on The Record: Ripon Christian baseball, Elliot Christian softball fall in CIF SJS finals
Reporting by Dylan Ackermann, The Stockton Record / The Record
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
