SACRAMENTO — A courageous baseball season ended unceremoniously for Davis High School in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs on Friday at American River College.

Playing Oak Ridge, the runner-up in the Delta River League, the Blue Devils lost 6-3 — with five errors allowing all of the Trojans’ runs to be unearned.

“We didn’t play very well (Friday),” DHS coach Dan Ariola said afterward. “And it wasn’t just defense. All four of their walks scored.”

Starting pitcher Ben Eckels (6-4) went five-plus innings, giving up only three hits while fanning 11. All four Oak Ridge batters he walked scored as the Trojans took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning.

In a three-run outburst, hits by Eckels and Galen Hoshovsky opened the bottom of the frame off winning pitcher Chris Muse-Fisher. Dillon Johnson worked a Davis walk and when Joe Murray singled, the bases were still loaded, nobody was out and the Devils were finally on the board.

Oak Ridge coach Todd Melton replaced Muse-Fisher with Cole Hansen, who walked Bobby Young, making it 6-2.

Austin Ales immediately took over for Hansen. Josh Merritt flied out, runners holding — but George Hatamiya’s sacrifice fly turned into a strange, game-ending double play.

The drive to deep center plated Johnson, but the Trojans appealed at second, contending Murray had left too soon. The umpires agreed, and DHS was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight season.

Davis finished as the Delta Valley Conference runner-up, going 22-5-1 during an emotioal season that saw the locals’ well-regarded pitching coach Scott Heinig die last month after suffering a head injury in a fall.

Oak Ridge is now 19-9 and on Saturday will play the winner of Friday’s Elk Grove-Vacaville contest.

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DHS’ George Hatamiya takes a swing during a game earlier this season. On Friday, Hatamiya’s seventh inning sacrifice fly ended up as a game-ending double play as the Blue Devils were bounced from the Sac-Joaquin Section tournament by Oak Ridge, 6-3, in the first round. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise file photo

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