Baseball, Softball both to host first round starting Friday

Sierra sophomore Andrew Paolini was a Big 8 Conference honorable mention and a Gold Glove Winner for the 2023 season. Credit: Herb Decker

Posted: May 01, 2023

Regional matchups for baseball and softball have been announced by the CCCAA and the Wolverines will be hosting the first round in both sports starting on Friday.

In baseball, Sierra earned the five-seed as they finished the regular season with a 27-12 record and fourth place in the Big 8 Conference. The Wolverines will face the 20-seed, College of the Sequoias (21-18) starting at 2 p.m. on Friday. Game two will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday with game three, if necessary, being played at 3 p.m. Sequoias placed fourth in the Central Valley Conference.

In softball, the Wolverines who finished 38-2 and won the Big 8 Conference earned the top seed and will play the 16-seed Solano (17-20) in the first round. The first game is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. with game two to be played on Saturday at noon. Game three, if necessary, will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Solano won the Bay Valley Conference with a 12-0 record, but struggled in non-conference action only winning five games. The Wolverines defeated Solano 15-1 in six innings on Feb. 21 at Solano. Sierra hit four triples and three doubles in the contest while Amaya Sutton pitched a complete game with six strikeouts.

If baseball and softball both win their opening round matchups, the super regionals for baseball will start on May 11 while the second round for softball will begin on May 12.

In other news, the CCCAA also released the All-State teams and Players of the Year for softball and Amaya Sutton was named the North Pitcher of the Year. Sutton finished 21-1 in 17 complete games and was second in the state with 186 strikeouts. She held the opposition to a .186 batting average and had a 1.26 ERA.

Wolverines head coach Darci Brownell was named the North Coach of the Year in her final season as Sierra finished 23-1 in the Big 8 and finished the season ranked second in the state.

In baseball, 11 players earned All-Big 8 Conference honors including: Zach Chamizo, Jack Weise, Kai Peterson, Jake Torres, Matthew Sigafoos and Clayton Coats who earned First Team. Gerard Hanson was named Freshman Pitcher of the Year and was also a Gold Glove Winner along with Dillon Wells and Andrew Paolini. Paolina was an All-Big 8 Honorable Mention along with Joe Plise and Andre Chacon.