After a season that saw multiple local baseball programs earn trips to the postseason, it should come as no surprise that players from Turlock, Hughson, Hilmar and Pitman earned end-of-year recognitions from their respective leagues.

For the second year in a row, Turlock’s Mike Souza was named the CCAL’s Coach of the Year after leading the Bulldogs to a consecutive league title with a 14-1 record. The ‘Dogs went 20-7-1 overall, their last win being in the first round of this year’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs, 8-6, against McClatchy.

Over in the TVL, Charly Garza of Hughson earned the top coaches honor for the second straight season, as well, after his club clinched the conference title in as many years with an 11-1 record. The Huskies went 27-7 overall and were the runner-up in the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Division V tournament.

Garza is sharing the award this year with Hilmar’s Frank Hilliard, who in his third season led the Yellowjackets to a runner-up finish at 9-3, which included handing Hughson their only loss in conference play. The ‘Jackets went 18-5 overall and defeated Destiny Chrisian 11-1 in the opening round of the D-V bracket.

Turlock seniors Dutch Lawrence and Josh Ramirez were big winners of some of the CCAL’s special awards. 

Ramirez, as he has over all four of his years as a varsity starter, continued flashing the leather at shortstop and earned the nod of the CCAL’s Defensive Player of the Year. In 28 games in the field, the Turlock captain posted a stellar .944 fielding percentage over 126 total chances. He recorded 32 putouts and 87 assists, but what the numbers don’t show were the number of highlight-reel sliding plays and his picking of sharply hit balls that prevented a handful of runs for Hilmar, his pitchers and the team.

One of those hurlers was Lawrence, a right-hander, who was named Pitcher of the Year for his efforts on the back end of each week. Slotted as the Bulldogs’ Friday starter, Lawrence went 5-1 in 8 starts. Over 40 1/3 innings, he had a 1.39 ERA (8 earned runs) and struck out 47 batters while allowing just 25 hits and 11 walks.

Hughson saw three players earn special TVL honors.

Earning the biggest of them all, Most Valuable Player, was Beau Blake. The senior had one of the best slash lines in the section with .495 batting average (53-for-107), .575 OBP, .832 SLG and a whopping 1.407 OPS with 12 doubles, 8 home runs, 23 walks, 45 RBI and 50 runs scored. Defensively, the shortstop had a .919 fielding percentage in 86 total chances over 34 games.

Similarly dominant at the plate was teammate Lawson Aviles, who was named TVL Offensive Player of the Year. The junior hit .333 (33-for-99) and a 1,082 OPS with 3 doubles, 3 triples and 6 home runs, 24 walks, 31 RBI, 13 steals and 39 runs scored. 

Blake and Aviles played many games behind the efforts of Max Mankins, who was named TVL Pitcher of the Year. The Hughson ace had an 8-1 record in 12 appearances this year, posting a 1.73 ERA (15 earned runs) and punching out 72 while walking only 10 and allowing 42 hits over 60 2/3 innings.

Hilmar’s Kayleb Amaya was named the TVL Defensive Player of the Year. The senior posted a .944 fielding percentage in 36 total chances over 23 games, primarily in the outfield.

The Bulldogs had three players named to All-CCAL First Team — seniors Andrew Sevilla (1B, 3B, P) and Jaron Rocha (P, INF), and junior Cooper Pacheco (1B). Joining them were a pair of Pride seniors in Nathan Cervantes (C) and Alberto Salazar (P, INF).

The All-CCAL Second Team consisted of Turlock sophomores Mason Hackler (2B) and Cameron Henard (OF) and Pitman senior pitcher Noah Cervantes and junior outfield teammate Jackson Way.

Honorable mentions were Turlock catcher Jadon Boyer and Pitman first baseman and pitcher Ben Vilhauer.

Others landing on the All-TVL team, meanwhile, were Hughson’s Bryce McDaniel, Andrew Fisher, Carlos Guizar, Dominic Aguiar, JC Lupercio, Isaac Lupercio and Benji Ocegueda and Hilmar’s John Labno, Brad Chipponeri, Marlin Kindberg, Jacob Sward, Ian Kohen and John Lopez.

Note: All-League selections for other spring sports will be in Wednesday’s Journal.