Ceres High’s baseball team dropped out of contention for the Western Athletic Conference championship last week.

The Bulldogs lost 1-0 and 9-1 to the crosstown-rival Hawks.

Ceres High needed to sweep Central Valley to remain in the hunt for the league title.

“We were pretty confident going into the games,” Bulldogs’ standout shortstop/pitcher Vincent Castrejon said. “Obviously, it (losing) wasn’t the plan.”

“They won,” Ceres High head coach Bret Durossette added. “My hat goes off to them. They have a really good team.”

Second-place Ceres High fell to 15-6 overall and 9-3 in the WAC.

WAC-champion Central Valley improved to 16-7 overall and 12-0 in the conference standings.

“Our kids are doing amazing things,” Durossette said. “We’re getting some wins under our belts. Our kids are having fun. To do what we’re doing with just 10 players is amazing.”

“I expect our team to take second,” Castrejon said. “It’s not what we’re hoping for. But it’s an accomplishment.”

Host Ceres High lost 1-0 to Central Valley on April 15 at Art McRae Field.

“That’s the closest game they’ve had in league,” Durossette said. “We battled.”

Bulldog Mario Vargas shined at pitcher against the Hawks.

“He did an excellent job,” Castrejon said.

Central Valley batted just .087 from the plate as a team versus Vargas, who surrendered just one run and two hits with three strikeouts and four walks in seven innings.

“He did just enough to throw off our guys,” Central Valley head coach Brad Bussard said. “We didn’t have a lot of quality at-bats against him.”

The Bulldogs also struggled on offense as they posted a team batting average of .130 against Hawk ace pitcher Chris Garcia, who gave up no runs and three hits with 13 strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.

“The kid (Garcia) is better than anybody we’ve seen all year,” Durossette said. “He’s a great pitcher.”

“We could have taken better approaches at the plate,” Castrejon stated. “If we limited our strikeouts and put the ball in play, we could have won the game.”

Ceres High lost 9-1 to host Central Valley on April 17.

“The energy wasn’t there,” said Castrejon, whose team was hoping to bounce back from a heart-breaking 1-0 loss sustained 48 hours earlier. “Everybody was down.”

“We didn’t play well at all,” Durossette stated. “They were the better team.”

The Bulldogs posted a team batting average of .143 with five strikeouts on offense.

Central Valley totaled 13 hits.

Castrejon (8-2) suffered just his second loss of the season at pitcher. He gave up six earned runs and 10 hits with two strikeouts and no walks in 41/3 innings.

“That’s a great team, skill-wise,” Castrejon said.

Ceres High has a head-to-head record of 0-11 versus Central Valley since the 2020-21 school year.

The Bulldogs won a pair of games against the Hawks in 2019-20.

“I know we haven’t had a good record against them the last few years,” Castrejon said. “I thought this year was going to be the year.”

Newcomers to the WAC, Central Valley will continue to play Ceres High twice a year in league play.

“It’s more fun than other games,” Castrejon said while talking about the Ceres High-Central Valley crosstown series. “There are more fans. You see familiar faces from travel ball and kids you grew up playing against. It adds a different element to the game.”