Franklin takes down Whitney in battle of Wildcats in Division I section title game

Going back-to-back is one of the most difficult things to do in sports, yet the Whitney Wildcats baseball team put themselves in position to do just that in the Division I Sac-Joaquin Section title game. The Wildcats beat McClatchy High in the Division I game in 2022. Unfortunately, the Wildcats came up short on Thursday night with a 6-2 loss against Franklin High at Sacramento City College. "Words can't describe how proud I am of our senior group," Wildcats coach Jackson Watt said. "Back-to-back league titles, going through and getting back here again, I get emotional thinking about it." Whitney High started the game out strong with two runs in the first inning that came off of singles by seniors Jonathan Vavak and Luke Oyler. The Wildcats stranded runners on second and third, which would eventually prove costly as they only totaled four baserunners for the remainder of the game. For Franklin High, the Wildcats were led by junior pitcher Nic Abraham, who only allowed four earned runs all season going into the game. Abraham recovered from the rough start in the first inning and finished with nine strikeouts in a complete game win. "Abraham is a great pitcher but we didn't do a great job with our offensive approach for a couple of innings taking away his slider and things we could've done a bit better on," Watt said. "We made the adjustments, though, and I'm really proud of our guys' fight. The scoreboard doesn't show it but they hit balls hard for the rest of the night and were crushing balls at dudes. Hats off to Franklin; their outfielders were making great plays. They did everything right today and the ball didn't bounce our way. That's baseball, sometimes." Junior Jax Gimenez had a solid day going two for four while Tyler Allen, Nathan Erickson and Shane Saunders each had a hit in the contest. Senior Jace Gillmore got the start on the mound and retired six of the first eight batters but struggled in the third and fourth inning and was taken out for Gavin McLendon. McLendon came in and pitched the final 2.2 innings, only allowing two baserunners and striking out two. McLendon is committed to San Diego State University. "I'm always confident in Gavin. He's a great person so it was awesome to see him have that success tonight," Watt said. "He did his part on the mound and that's really hard to do mid-inning in a high leverage situation to minimize the way he did." While Whitney High was unable to capture the section title, their season isn't over yet as they will now prepare for the NorCal Regional Playoffs that begin on Tuesday. Brackets will be released to the public on Sunday. "We need to continue to do what we do, that's what we preach to our guys every day," Watt said. "We did a lot of things right today. We'll keep fighting hard and just continue to do the things we do well."