Lancers off to a great start in league play

Apr 11, 2022 12:00AM ● By By Douglas Benton

Cordova senior catcher Justin Nelson gets the force out at home plate before throwing out the runner at first base during a 6-0 loss to Bella Vista on Wednesday, March 2 in Rancho Cordova. Photo courtesy of Rick Sloan

Lancers off to a great start in league play [5 Images] Click Any Image To Expand

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) – The Cordova High School varsity baseball team entered tournament play this week on a six-game winning streak following a sweep of Valley to begin Greater Sacramento League action.

Senior captain Matt Jernigan, who has signed a national letter of intent to play at Western Oregon, leads the Lancers in hits and RBI. He has gone 16-for-30 with 16 RBI and 10 runs scored. Other players with double digit hit totals are senior Ashton Ready and juniors Alfredo Cervantes IV, Joey Stark and Eli Campbell.

Jernigan has thrown a team-high 24.1 innings with a 2.01 ERA. The left-handed flamethrower has struck out 42 batters. Fellow seniors Justin Nelson and Troy Combs have logged 11.1 and 11 innings, respectively, while striking out more than a batter per inning.

The Lancers (7-4, 3-0 Greater Sacramento) beat Valley (2-6, 2-4) by a score of 16-0 Monday, April 4, 25-1 Tuesday and 17-5 Thursday to extend their overall win streak to six games as of April 10. If you’re keeping score at home, the Lancers demolished the Vikings, outscoring them a combined 58-6 over three games.

In 2021, Cordova went 13-2 in league play to finish a game behind West Campus. Last year marked the first full season under head coach Scott Ahlstrom. The third-year coach took over prior to the 2020 season that was halted after two games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to Ahlstrom taking over, the Lancers had just one winning season from 2015-2019. The team went 16-11 overall last spring.

As of press time, the results of Cordova’s games at the El Camino Baseball Classic being hosted at Folsom Lake College are unknown. However, the Lancers begun the tournament Monday with afternoon matchups against Grant (6-6, 3-3 Metropolitan) and Yuba City (9-9, 6-6 Capital Valley).

If you’d like to come watch Cordova compete in league play, the Lancers will host three games against Natomas (2-13-2, 1-5) on April 18, 19 and 21, each at 4 P.M. before a home doubleheader versus West Campus (3-1, 3-0) on April 23 at 11 A.M.

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