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Weston Ranch shuts out Lathrop High Spartans
hit
Photo by WAYNE THALLANDER Lathrop's Alyuss Duenez is hit by a pitch.

STOCKTON – Dustin Tinsley threw a three-hit shutout for Weston Ranch on Friday in a 4-0 non-league baseball win over visiting Lathrop.

Tinsley finished with 11 strikeouts against one hit batter and one walk.

“I felt good coming in after the save against East Union on Thursday,” Tinsley said. “I was just feeling everything out so I could see what was going to work next week since it is the last week of league for us.

“I think I was kind of locked in, but I did miss a couple of pitches. My fast ball was working, they were swinging, and the defense was working well.”

Leading 1-0 going into the fifth inning, the Cougars (7-16) loaded the bases with two outs when Christian Cortes and Alejandro Piedra drew back-to-back walks followed by a Dustin Tinsley single.

Zyale Brown-Sanger followed with a towering fly ball to right-center field and it fell between two Spartans outfielders, allowing Cortes and Piedra to score and sending Tinsley to third. Tinsley came in to score on a passed ball for the game’s final run.  

“I’ll take that little bloop,” Brown-Sanger said. “Those RBIs help the team.

“I was just trying to keep that momentum going after the win over East Union on Thursday.”

Piedra singled in the first inning and scored on a groundout by Brown-Sanger.

“This was kind of a low-key game,” Weston Ranch coach Dave Hager said. “We had talked about how even though this was a non-league game on a Friday the day before the prom we would still have to find a way to have some intensity and energy.

“And while we were not at our high levels of intensity and energy we did enough to come out with the win.”

The Spartans (8-7) managed just two runners into scoring position. Jeremiah Estante singled in the sixth inning for Lathrop. Adrian Zuniga sacrificed Estante to second on a sacrifice and Noah Martinez singled to give the Spartans runners at the corners with two outs. A flyout ended the threat.

“We kept on looking at the first strikes instead of swinging at the first strikes,” Lathrop coach Charles Garcia said. “And then that little blooper to right field really killed us when we were not aggressive and didn’t try to catch it. That killed us.

“When you are not aggressive at the plate you are not going to get runs and you are not going to win games that way.”

On Tuesday at 4 p.m. the Spartans are on the road against Mountain House and Weston Ranch hosts Sierra.