MODESTO – Sierra High’s defense only committed two errors, but they proved costly in the Timberwolves’ 6-1 loss to Johansen High Tuesday.

Sierra (2-1) fell behind early, giving up two in the first and two in the second. The Vikings would add a run in the third and the fourth before Sierra would finally get on the scoreboard in its half of the sixth inning.

“We didn’t do a real good job of adjusting at the plate today,” Sierra head coach Jack Thomson said. “We’re young, not to use that as an excuse, but we actually faced a guy that didn’t throw very hard and we didn’t adjust and he got us to roll-over about eight or nine times to the left side.
“We just didn’t have a real good approach at the plate.”

John Perez stroked a double for the Timberwolves, who only collected five hits in the contest.

Sierra will close out its non-league schedule with a contest Friday at Turlock and a home game Monday against Stagg. The Valley Oak League opener will be the following afternoon at Weston Ranch, giving the Timberwolves a pair of tune-up’s before league play gets underway.

“We’ll be playing to win, we’ll just have to set up our pitching so that we have the guys we want pitching for the league games,” Thomson said. “We’re still trying to find out who we are and we’re still moving guys around.

“We’ll approach them like we would any other games just with the understanding that we have to have our pitchers ready to throw Tuesday and Thursday.”

ESCALON – The Lancers ran into a strong outing from Escalon sophomore Matt Valencia, holding the East Union bats silent for six innings of work.

East Union could only muster two hits, each coming from Ricky Inderbitzin and Ronnie Limas.

Valencia was on against East Union, striking out 10, seven of which came from East Union chasing pitches out of the zone.

“He actually pitched real well,” East Union head coach Dan Triglia said. “He’d get two strikes on us and we would help him out nearly every time. He was a left-hander and he was very deceptive.

“He threw a nice pitch that was running away from our hitters and we were a bit too undisciplined at the plate today.”

The Lancers (1-3) will try to get back in the win column Thursday when they play host to the Stagg Delta Kings.

ANGELS CAMP – The Bullfrogs rolled out their third consecutive win, outlasting the Indians in a 10-8 slugfest Tuesday in Ripon’s nonleague finale.

Ripon (1-5) built a pseudo-comfortable seven-run lead behind a five-run fourth and a pair in the fifth, but Bret Hart would respond immediately with a six-run fifth and a four-run sixth to grab the lead for good.

“It was good to see the ball club be able to score some runs,” Ripon head coach Mitch Evans said. “We had some timely hitting and did a good job moving some runners over and putting them in scoring position.

“Take nothing away from Bret Harte they beat us, we’re just look forward to hopefully seeing them again down the road.”

Sam Van Vuren paced the Indians with a 3 for 4 afternoon, while teammate Matt Ratto drove in three runs.

The Indians will kick off the Trans Valley League season Friday with a trip to Salida to take on the Modesto Christian Crusaders.

RIPON – The Knights held Summerville’s bats silent for five innings, but the Bears were able to tie things up in the sixth on an unearned run, and pull away for good with two in the eighth inning.

Elijah English led the Knights going 2 for 4, while Justin Lemoine, Aaron Fay, Wes Lown, Robert Hull, Steve Vander Molen and Clayton Prins all stroked base hits, with Prins smashing a double.

The Knights (2-2) will kick off league action playing host to the Hughson Huskies Friday at 4 p.m.

— Jagada Chambers