Manteca’s softball team leaned on its freshmen Wednesday to maintain its perfect start to the season.

Marissa San Nicolas accounted for three of the Buffaloes’ eight base hits, as they held off a late charge from Linden for a 7-4 home win.

Now 7-0, Manteca was without a few upperclassmen in this battle of unbeatens. The Buffs’ lineup had seven freshman batting in succession.

“Excited with our team’s performance today,” Manteca coach Josh Farris said. “Our coaches challenged the girls today to prove how potent our lineup still can be, and I thought that they answered the bell today.”

San Nicolas finished 3 for 4 with a double, RBI, run and stolen base. Sienna Lowery (two RBIs) and Riley Ward (two runs) each went 2 for 3. Jocelyn Baptist added an RBI double and a run.

Manteca set the tone with three runs in the first inning and had a 7-0 lead going into the fifth. Linden (2-1) came alive with three runs in the top of the fifth and mustered one more in the seventh.

Junior starter Nayellys Torres struck out four and was charged with one earned run over five innings. Bel Tonna got the final six outs, allowing two hits.

“We played a solid game overall,” Farris said. “I thought we may have let up a little bit with a big lead. Going forward, we are going to have to make sure we keep that same energy we had at the beginning of the game for all seven innings.”

Manteca travels to Fairfield on Friday.

BOYS TENNIS

Lathrop 5, Grace Davis 4

A forfeiture at No. 3 doubles was the difference for Lathrop in this tightly-contested Western Athletic Conference showdown.

Eli Poklay (6-3, 6-0), Sage Coates (6-2, 6-1) and Adam Godinez (6-2, 6-1) won at Nos. 3-5 singles in that order. The No. 1 doubles tandem of Daya Singh and Niko Ruiz held off Max Davila and Jose Gomez Garcia, 7-5, 6-1. Tristan Vuong and Noah Talania dropped a competitive three-setter at No. 2 doubles 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 against Ignacio Gutierrez and Jose Espinoza.

BOYS GOLF

Ripon Christian 209, Gregori 249

Ethan Schenk birdied the par-three seventh hole at Spring Creek Golf & Country Club, finishing with a 2-over 37 in the non-league match.

Cade Van Groningen followed with a 38. Wyatt Hayes (41), Trey Van Groningen (42) and Ben Miller (51) rounded out scoring for the Knights.