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Journalists love to make lists. Just browse the internet for a few minutes and you should come across the top 500 albums in rock and roll history. Top 5 greatest movies of all time. Top 10 Vacation Destinations; 100 Greatest Novels in American Literature.
Here at Turlock Journal is no exception. This is especially true towards the end of the year. So here is the list of the top 5 local sports stories for 2022.
No. 5: Turlock Golf dominates — The Bulldogs finished the 2021-22 school year, with the men’s team recording a second straight Central California Athletic League season and winning the Sack Joaquin Section Division II Championship. Win league MVP. Later that year, the Bulldog girls’ team, which began on the 2022-23 school calendar, also won league and section titles.
But to them it was no ordinary hero. Sydney Streeter, his CCAL Most Valuable Player in 2021, and Savannah Vangaren, who claims the league’s MVP award in 2022, struck out his 82 and his 83 respectively. This is usually about 10 strokes in a round played at the Turlock Golf and Country Club. Home course and section tournament venue. Instead, junior Isabella Dowd and sophomore Reese Benjamin stepped up their game when they needed it most, with Dowd hitting her 74 in her two overs and Benjamin hitting her 86. Recorded. Both are well below their season averages. Natalia Lightfoot rounded out Turlock’s individual score with 90 and the Bulldogs team his score with 415, putting him 47 shots ahead of CCAL rival Enox (462 shots).
No. 4: Pitman’s volleyball makes a deep run again — Pride reached the semi-finals from 2013-2016, won the title from 2014-2016, and it’s not uncommon for Pride to have a deep run in the playoffs in the Sack Joaquin section. They won his NorCal title and played in the state championship. And this year wasn’t supposed to be the year they returned to the Final Four, with a bevy of young talent. With freshmen Marin Hall and Ira Reich, and juniors Peyton Lowell, Ella Snizek and Madison Eisayu returning next year, Pride could very well be the number one sports story in 2023 .
No. 3: Turlock’s Tyler Soderstrom just got a little closer to the big leagues — The Turlock High alumnus was drafted by the Oakland A’s in the first round (26th overall) of the 2020 Draft. The 6-2, 200-pound pitcher started his 2022 season with the High-A Lansings of the Midwest League before being promoted to the Midlands of the Texas League. After the Rockhounds’ final game of the season on September 17, Soderstrom was promoted to Triple-A Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League.
“We were in the Midlands, finishing the last series,” said father Steve Soderstrom, a first-round pick for the San Francisco Giants in 1993. I was obviously really happy and really excited. “
In 134 games with three teams, Soderstrom batted .267 with 29 homers, 105 RBIs and a .324/.501/.825 slash line. In his first year in professional baseball, Soderstrom hit . He’s currently listed as the #1 prospect in the A’s organization, estimated to arrive in the big leagues in 2024, and will likely be a rock for top local sports stories in two years.
Turlock Christian’s Gavin Farinha is one of 12 pitchers in the United States to record a .00 ERA, leads the nation with six no-hitters, and ranks third in the nation with 12 wins and 155 strikeouts. It was a high total (journal file photo). .
No. 2: Turlock Christian pitcher Gavin Fariña steps onto the national stage — The 6-foot, 190-pound left-handed pitcher was the region’s most dominant pitcher last year. Probably the most dominant in this section. Perhaps even states. Farinha recorded 12 wins and 0 losses in 12 games, an ERA of 0.00, and a batting average of 0.036. But it’s not even the impressive part. He pitched six no-hitters and allowed multiple hits only once in a game (3). calculate. That’s more than he has two hitters per inning. In his 5–1 victory over Forest Hill, Fariña struck out 20 of his 24 batters against him. The high point came when Fariña won the Valley in his 1–0 victory over Christian, with 14 strikeouts in which he singled out and won the Division VII Division crown.
Fariña, now a senior, was one of 12 pitchers in the United States to record a 0.00 ERA and led the nation with six no-hitters.
Fariña, who has signed a contract to play at the Masters University in Santa Clarita, is another frontrunner to be Top Sports Story in 2023.
And the No. 1 local sports story for 2022 is… can we drumroll please?
Turlock High School Football Team Overwhelms St. Mary’s to Advance to Sectional Semifinals — After losing the 2021 CCAL title to Downey, the Bulldogs entered the season not as the hunted side, but as the Hunter. The Knights once again earned his second consecutive title this fall with a last-second field goal at Joe DeVry Stadium that gave him a 24-22 victory over THS. When the postseason fixtures were announced, most pundits took one look and thought that with the powerful St. Marys looming in the second round, Turlock thought he would be a one-off. rice field. After all, the St. He Marys were the team that blew up the team (Central Catholic) that beat the team that blew Turlock (Manteca) earlier in the season. Heck, this was Saint Mary’s team that beat de la Salle. De La Salle!
Call me whatever you like. Call it overconfidence on the part of the Rams, or call it a lack of momentum after St. Marys received a first-round bye. game. Bulldogs coach James Peterson quickly scored his two-point conversion after scoring a touchdown and making him 50-49 with just over a minute remaining. Cole with a jump pass from his Gilbert to Andrew his Johnson took Turlock to the semi-finals for the first time in 20 years.
The Bulldogs received an excited send-off, completing a police escort out of town for their semifinal matchup against Oak Ridge. That game gave Turlock his 24–0 loss, but that didn’t diminish the fact that the Bulldogs scored him one of the biggest upsets in Division I playoff history.
An upset worthy of the local sports top story of the year.