Emotions flow after Sierra suffers season-ending loss to Saddleback in state championships
Sunday produced a range of emotions for the Sierra College Wolverines baseball team.
The day started with the high of a thrilling walk-off home run to beat a rival and keep their state championship dreams alive. It ended in defeat and finality after a special group of players took the field together for the last time.
Sierra was eliminated from the California Community College Athletic Association state championships with a 10-4 loss to Saddleback on Sunday at Folsom Lake College.
The loss came just hours after the Wolverines eliminated Big 8 conference rival Folsom Lake with an 11-10 victory on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to advance another round. Saddleback and Santa Ana, both from Southern California, will play for the state title on Monday.
“These guys are freaking warriors,” Sierra coach Ryan Evangelho said afterwards as his eyes welled up. “I’ll go to battle with them anytime.”
After Evangelho’s final speech to the team in right field following the loss, players took time to embrace one another. It took minutes on end for each member of the roster to shake hands and hug one another, while many embraces included emotions pouring out, knowing that it was the last time they’d do so in a Wolverines uniform.
Sierra was a sophomore-laden team with many players who experienced back-to-back playoff runs and used last season’s experience to catalyze this year’s push. The Wolverines have a handful of players moving on to play at four-year schools, including ace left-hander Kai Peterson (Rice), star shortstop Zach Chamizo (UC Riverside), left-hander Jake Torres (Cal Poly) and closer Matthew Sigafoos (UNLV).
“People always ask me, ‘Why don’t you coach Division I?’ I said, ‘I do,’” Evangelho said. “Because half of my team goes to Division I schools, so I get to coach these guys even though they’re at this level. I get them a little (more raw) and develop them. That’s what you take pride in as a coach. That stuff’s important.”
Peterson, who started the first game of the tournament for Sierra, was among the team’s emotional leaders after Sunday’s loss. He was named an all-conference player in 2023, along with Sigafoos, Chamizo, third baseman Jack Weise, catcher Clayton Coates, Torres and Gerald Hanson, who was named Freshman Pitcher of the Year.
“I think (coaches) just let players be themselves for the most part,” Peterson said when asked what Evangelho’s program does to develop Division I talent. “He’s right. This is a Division I program, pretty much. We have a lot of guys, I think, that should go D1 this year.
“This has been my favorite season of baseball so far, from a personal standpoint and a team standpoint,” Peterson continued. “I don’t think I’ve ever loved a team as a whole this much.”
Chamizo, who hit .359 with a .423 on-base percentage and .544 slugging percentage, originally went to San Francisco State in 2020 amid the pandemic, but returned to Sierra after playing at Lincoln High School.
“It’s been everything,” Chamizo said. “Coming to this program was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. This is the best program, best guys I’ve been with. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
One of Chamizo’s favorite things about the team was its resilience, which was evident hours earlier when the team fought back from a 6-0 deficit against Folsom Lake to tie the game. And even after Folsom Lake took the lead again, Sierra was able to win it in the ninth inning with a walk-off home run from Phoenix Casias, his first home run at any level of baseball.
“We never quit,” Chamizo said. “These guys, no matter what, we’d be down six or seven (runs) and we’d be like, ‘alright, cool, bring it on.’ No one quit ever on this team, and that was the best part of being here.”
The double-elimination tournament included four teams. The two teams from Southern California, Santa Ana and Saddleback, will play for the state championship Monday. Santa Ana needs one win to claim the title after coming through the winner’s bracket. Saddleback will have to win two.
Sierra wound up losing to Saddleback twice, including Saturday’s tournament opener. The Wolverines faced Saddleback again after beating Folsom Lake College in an elimination game Sunday morning.
Saddleback starting pitcher C.J. Zwahlen got the win after holding Sierra to four runs (two earned) over seven innings. His offense put up eight runs through five innings against a Sierra pitching staff that was thinned out while playing its third game in two days.
“He lived away and mixed pitches, mixed speeds pretty well, and kept us on our heels a little bit,” Evangelho said. “So we battled, had some big innings and had some hard-hit balls caught that were just right at guys, which is obviously baseball. But (the players) battled their butts off. That’s all I can ask for.”
