The 2024 baseball season is now officially underway. In the Valley Oak League season opening week, the Oakdale Mustangs played in a three-game series against Central Catholic. The series saw Oakdale winning the first two games but they were blanked in the series finale.

Game one was hosted at Oakdale High School on Monday, March 18. Oakdale won the game 3-1. The Mustangs took a 1-0 advantage in the first inning and the Raiders tied the game 1-1 in the fifth. The sixth inning saw Oakdale tack on a pair of runs for the win. Tommy Chance had a home run to help power the Mustangs. Eric Velazquez and Glen Weber each added an RBI. Landon Schutte pitched a complete game for Oakdale, surrendering three hits, seven walks and one unearned run.

The scoreboard got a workout on Wednesday, March 20. There was a total of 21 runs scored between the two teams. Down 9-7 in the top of the seventh inning, Oakdale scored four runs to take the lead and ultimately won 11-10. Carlo Antinetti went 3-for-4 at the plate and drove in three runs. Velazquez also drove in a trio of runs. Griffin Costa and Weber each had two RBI and Schutte added one more. Three pitchers worked on the mound for Oakdale. Chance worked just two-thirds of an inning giving up three earned runs, one hit, and struck out two batters. Trey Parsons worked four-and-a-third innings giving up five hits, three runs, one walk and struck out one. Costa went two full innings giving up four runs, walking four batters, and he struck out two.

Central Catholic avoided the series sweep when they shut out Oakdale 3-0 on Friday, March 22. Oakdale had zero offense in the game as they were no-hit by TP Wentworth.

This week Oakdale has a three-game series with Manteca. Game one was Monday, March 25; game two is scheduled for Wednesday, March 27 at Manteca and game three will be held at Oakdale on Thursday, March 28. All games are scheduled for 4 p.m.

This will be Manteca’s first Valley Oak League action this season.