Season after season the Cen-Cal 10-under baseball program has been moving their squad in the right direction and the team tasted the fruits of its labor with the Pedretti Tournament Championship recently in Turlock.
The Oakdale based team of 11 players made the trip south and returned with an impressive victory in one of the area’s most competitive tournaments.
“All the little things they’ve worked on over the last two fall seasons,” head coach Nate Gregory said, “they were finally able to put it together between the lines.”
Cen-Cal posted the tournament victory by knocking off several talented teams, saving their best performance for the tournament-clinching championship game.
Oakdale pitcher Blake Whiting came in with the game on the line and recorded a strikeout to clinch the Mustangs’ tournament title.
“Most of these teams are set up with tryouts of coaches pulling players in,” Gregory said. “We’ve got 11 kids and nine of them are from Oakdale.
“That’s the biggest thing for us, that the kids are from our community, which is not typical for these travel ball teams.”
The Mustangs will look to keep momentum churning as they head to Riverbank for a Rainbow Fields Tournament the last weekend in May.