How Modesto’s Central Catholic baseball team made its first section final since 2019

The Central Catholic baseball team is fueled by the desire to learn from past experiences and bonded by blond hair.

The Raiders this year won the Valley Oak League and finished the regular season with 16 wins, earning the third seed in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs.

They won their first two home games, beating Los Banos and Roseville without giving up a run.

“We had high expectations, we had big goals.” said head coach Danny Ayala.

It was similar to their playoff run in 2022. As the No. 4 seed, they won their first two home playoff games, setting up a best-of-three semifinals series against Vanden. After losing the first game, the Raiders took Game 2, forcing a third win-or-go-home game. On the road, they fell 1-0 to the Vikings on a run scored in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Raiders found themselves in another must-win situation in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III semifinals on their home field. After dropping Game 1 of a best-of-three series to Christian Brothers, 3-1, the only way to advance was win two straight games.

This year, the result was different.

The Raiders won Wednesday’s home game 8-1 and Thursday’s game on the road 13-4 to secure their spot in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship against No. 4 Pioneer at Islander’s Park Thursday at 6 p.m.

Pioneer (23-4) finished second in the Golden Empire League. The Patriots beat Patterson and Lincoln in the first two rounds and upset top seed Ponderosa in three games in the semifinals.

“We were at the same point as last year and I felt like we were so close last year,” said junior infielder Seth Van Dyk. “Basically, everyone on this team played last year so everyone had that grit at practice. We wanted to get it done and show that we could still compete.”

‘Tied together’

The team’s three seniors were supposed to be at Disneyland last week.

Jalen Nichols, Joel Roberts and Braxton Thomas skipped out on the senior trip to Disneyland to play in the final three-game series of their high school baseball careers.

Against the Falcons, the three went 11-for-21 at the plate and drove in a pair of runs. Thomas also hit his 12th home run of the season in the series-clinching game to claim sole possession of first in California in home runs.

“We saw that the Wednesday game fell on the same day (as the trip) and there was no way we were going.” Roberts said.

The Raiders fell down 0-1 in the series but quickly bounced back, winning Wednesday’s home game 8-1 and Thursday’s game on the road 13-4 to secure their spot in Thursday evening’s game.

“When we were playing in it, I was like, ‘I didn’t miss Disneyland just to get swept,’” Roberts said. “I knew we were gonna come through. It felt better knowing that we missed (Disneyland), but we won.”

The journey through the postseason is all about adjustments, and one major change the Raiders made was to their appearance. The team sports blue or white cleats, it alternates between cream and blue pinstripe uniforms— depending on the game — and dyed blond hair.

“We just did it for playoffs,” pitcher and infielder Adrian Garcia said. “We’ve been talking about it for a while but this was the first year we finally actually did it. … One person wanted to do it, so like we’re all just like, yeah.”

That one person was Van Dyk, who got the idea from his brother’s team at Stanislaus State.

“I think this year, everyone is just really tied together and I had the idea and I asked who wanted to bleach their hair with me … and I got everyone on board. The whole team did it and it’s working.”

They even got Ayala to do it. He told the players that if they won their first few postseason games, he would buy some hair dye. He revealed his new look to the team before Monday’s series opener.

“They didn’t have to pressure me — I’m a team guy, I love it,” Ayala said. “They did it on their own and I told the boys if they win a couple of ball games that I didn’t have a problem doing it. So they won a couple games and I went to Sally’s.”

They posed as a team sitting on the wall outside the dugout after their last home game of the season, the 8-1 win over the Falcons to extend the series to a deciding game three, and when they were done taking the photo gathered in a large group while teammates finished interviews with media and post-game conversations with coaches before walking across the field to the locker room beyond the right center-field fence.

Ready for Thursday

Ayala’s three options at starting pitcher are all good ones.

He can give Garcia, TP Wentworth or Wesley Payne the nod and each would be able to get the job done.

Wentworth has a perfect 8-0 record with a pair of no hitters in 11 appearances, Garcia has a 4-2 record in 10 appearances and Payne has a 3-0 record and is coming off pitching 5.2 innings and striking out eight batters in the rubber match win in the section semifinals.

“It’s a really good feeling to have guys that can throw a lot of innings,” Wentworth said after the Raiders’ Game 2 win over Christian Brothers. “To have that many dudes and arms is super helpful and helps everybody out. It helps the relievers and gives them a chance to get a break in some games and if we’re rolling, we keep rolling and if you want to get another guy in, we get another guy and so it’s a really good feeling to have three really good pitchers.”

No one on this year’s team was in high school the last time the Raiders appeared in a section final, In 2019, they fell to Los Banos 3-0 in the Division IV title game, but they aren’t intimidated by the big stage.

“We’re all just ready to go,” Roberts said. “We’re pumped.”

Said Van Dyk: “It’s a game with a ton of energy. They’re there for a reason, we’re there for a reason, it’s two great teams battling it out. We just have to focus on what’s important, and what we have to do to win.”