STOCKTON — Joaquin Escobar was the batting champion for the Edison baseball team with a .456 average as a senior.
So, the three-year Viking varsity player was not used to being placed at the bottom of a lineup.
Not only was Escobar situated at the very end of a batting order, but a gigantic lineup larger than a major league roster. But Escobar made the most of it, notching an RBI single as the eventual winning hit, as the South topped the North 15-8 in the 26th annual All-Star Classic Friday at Delta College’s Cecchetti Field.
The North beat the South 17-16 in the softball all-star game played nearby at Delta’s Bucky Layland Softball Complex.
Omar Escobar, Joaquin’s twin brother, singled as well right before Joaquin in the fourth inning. And Joaquin’s clutch knock, albeit not well-hit by his own admission, was one of the highlights from a 13-0 South run to close the game.
“Batting No. 32, man. I’m just trying to do my part,” Joaquin Escobar said with a smile. “I hit that little dribbler, but it was the game-winning hit.”
Tracy catcher Kevin Saenz finished off the North in dramatic fashion in the ninth. Saenz, in-between pitches, fired a backdoor throw to first and caught the runner off-guard. He had set it up, subtly, with Sierra’s Anthony Arredondo at first. The two played on a travel ball team together in years past, including a memorable trip to Oceanside, near San Diego, where they stayed in a beach house. Saenz gave Arredondo a hint at his thought process.
“I whistled at him. I let him know, ‘Hey, I’m coming this pitch,’” said Saenz, who’s signed to play with Dixie State University, an NCAA Division II program in St. George, Utah. “Maybe I could end the game that way.”
Manteca’s Tyler Graves-Kelso, who came on in relief for the fifth and sixth, was the winning pitcher. Graves-Kelso tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee while playing for the Buffaloes boys basketball team in January, but never underwent surgery.
Instead, he rested, spent the remainder of the basketball season in street clothes on the bench, and focused on baseball. Despite the ACL injury, and a severe cut to his finger, Graves-Kelso was still part of the historic state championship in hoops, and the baseball team’s second Sac-Joaquin Section title in three years.
He delivered the eventual winning hit in the section championship against Sacramento-Christian Brothers.
“I knew when I actually was fully healthy, I was going to be ready to go out there and be the best I could,” Graves-Kelso said.
The North surged ahead 4-0 after the first, buoyed by a 1-2-3 inning from starting pitcher in St. Mary’s Isaiah Bettencourt, and RBI hits from Lincoln’s Jordan Olson and McNair’s Nick Chapman in the bottom half.
The center fielder Chapman made a theatrical catch on a line drive, and Lincoln shortstop Dezmond Gaines nabbed a hard grounder on a back-hand to keep the South scoreless in the second.
And the South exploded with a six-run fourth inning, kick-started by a triple from Arredondo.
SOFTBALL
North 17, South 16
A trio of Lodi softball players have one whopper of a story to tell their children in years to come.
Tokay’s Taelor Ford and Mariah Mendoza, along with Elliot Christian’s Ashley Johns, played in a game that saw Johns and the South jump out to 13-2 lead before Ford and Mendoza contributed to a rally that gave the North a wild come-from-behind win. The game was scheduled to go nine innings, but was called after eight because of darkness.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh and the North trailing 16-15, Ford stepped into the batter’s box with Edison’s Mikaela Leach on third base. Ford grounded out to second base, but Leach slid into home plate to tie the game — capping a five-run inning.
A walk and bunt single in the bottom of the eighth set up the moment for Stagg’s Corrina Rivera, who singled up the middle to score Linden pinch-runner and starting pitcher Marisa Peters for the victory.