Ripon Christian coach John de Visser has hailed Jackson Howell as one of the best right-handed hitters in program history.
The senior transfer continues to prove him right.
Howell ignited the top-seeded Knights’ early onslaught in their 8-3 win over first-time postseason qualifier River Islands on Friday, earning a spot in the Sac-Joaquin Section semifinals for the third time in four years.
They’ll get another shot at Colfax, which knocked them out in the Division VI quarterfinals last year.
Howell has been a spark from the top of Ripon Christian’s lineup since his midseason arrival. A three-year varsity starter at Big Valley Christian, he missed the first 10 games because of SJS transfer rules.
He showed his abilities as an all-around run producer in his first two at-bats on Friday. Howell led off the bottom of the first inning with a single down the third-base line, stole second base and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Talen Tameling knocked him home with a hit to right.
Then came the devastating third inning in which the first eight Knights batters reached base. The biggest blow came off Howell’s bat, driving the first pitch he saw to left for a grand slam. That was part of a six-run rally, and the Knights (26-2) tacked on another in the third for an 8-0 lead.
“I felt like after that first hit, the guys kept the momentum going,” Howell said. “They did a really good job. I mean, that (grand slam) doesn’t happen unless the bases are loaded.
“In the first at-bat, I saw two curveballs. I think he just hung that one a little bit, and I was waiting on it.”
Ripon Christian had contributions up and down the lineup in its 17th consecutive win. Maxx Anderson, Trenton Cloward (run, steal) and Jack Strickland (run, RBI) each had two hits, and Noah De Bruyn scored twice.
Sophomore southpaw Cloward pitched 5 2/3 innings for the win, striking out four against five hits, two walks and a hit batter. Jackson (three hits, two runs, walk, three strikeouts) got the final four outs.
Ninth-seeded River Islands (15-8) did well to stay in the fight and avoid the 10-run mercy rule. Santiago Lopez, also a left-handed sophomore, was solid in his four innings in relief, surrendering a run on three hits and no walks. Senior Israel Fuentes pitched a perfect sixth inning.
“They did a nice job of mixing and matching speeds,” de Visser said. “They went with the smaller righty, then they went with a little firmer lefty with a good breaking ball, and they went back to righty. It’s three different looks, and it’s tough.
“Their lefty was able to hold our running game in the middle of the game, so we weren’t able to do what we did at the beginning of the game. Our guys weren’t able to get good reads. We still had good at-bats, but that’s a good team.”
While de Visser’s club enjoyed a program milestone in recent weeks by winning its first title in the Trans Valley League, River Islands has put itself on the map in year 2 at the varsity level.
Led by coach Cody Kruip, the Riptide was in the running for a Central California Athletic Alliance championship and finished one game shy of a share. They got de Visser’s attention on Wednesday with their impressive playoff debut, traveling 100 miles to end Mariposa’s 19-game winning streak, 8-1.
De Visser is well acquainted with Mariposa, which battled his Knights tooth and nail for more than a decade during their time in the Southern League.
“For them to go in there at a really difficult place to play and play that brand of ball; this kind of program gets your attention real quick — especially since we’ve never played them,” de Visser said. “So, I didn’t’ know what to expect.”
River Islands scored its runs in the final two innings. George Dayeh led off the sixth with a single and scored on freshman Chase Salomon’s grounder up the middle. Dayeh came through again in the seventh, knocking in freshman Cash Orndoff. Fuentes doubled and scored on an error.
One of just five seniors on his team, Dayeh finished 3 for 4, and the younger Orndoff went 2 for 4.
“This senior class went from not having enough guys to practice their freshman year, to going up against one of the best-coached teams in the area for seven innings,” Kruip said. “You can’t be upset about it. The boys worked really hard to get to this point.”
And there’s a lot of talent coming back to raise the bar next year.
“It’s exciting,” Kruip said. “There’s a lot of guys that may have not gotten as many opportunities as we would like them to, because they have seniors in front of them that developed the program. But there’s a lot of dudes, and I think they’re going to step up into those roles really well.”
Ripon Christian hosts game 1 of its best-of-three semifinal with Colfax next Tuesday.
