After a close game in the first round, the Woodland High School varsity baseball team opted for a different route in the second round and took care of business early, defeating Linden 15-5 in six innings, advancing them to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division 5 semifinals.

“Our energy from the moment we got here was a lot more game-ready,” Wolves head coach Danny Eoff said. “We came here to fight, almost taking it personally that another team came in thinking they’d beat us at home. From Riely (Salvemini) dominating on the mound to our plate approaches and executing a lot of running in the first couple of innings, all really took the wind out of their sails. We punched first for once.”

The No. 4-seeded Wolves (23-8, 15-6 Golden Empire League) came into Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup at Clark Field against the No. 5-seeded Linden after a close 4-0 win over No. 13 seed Marysville this past Tuesday.

Linden earned the No. 5 seed thanks to a first-place finish in the Mother Lode League and defeated No. 12 seed Union Mine 4-3 on Tuesday.

With the win, the Wolves will now face off against No. 1 seed Lincoln, who finished in second place in the Pioneer Valley League behind powerhouse Oakmont, which faced off against Pioneer High School on Friday in the CIF SJS D3 quarterfinal.

Game one is set for Monday at Lincoln High School, while game two will be back at Clark Field on Wednesday. If necessary, game three will be at Lincoln on Thursday. All games are set to start at 4 p.m.

“The good thing is that we have seen Lincoln already, having faced them during a tournament,” Eoff recalled. “They have a great one-two punch on the mound, but the fact that we have seen it leaves no mystery there. They are a good team. You don’t earn the No. 1 seed for nothing. We are going to have to compete at their house, but I think these guys know that when we are playing our game and we bring our energy, we can beat anyone.”

Woodland raced out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning, highlighted by a Riley Salvemini RBI double. Theyd up the ante in the second inning by scoring four more, and then added another two runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 9-1 lead into the fourth.

Linden, however, showed why they were in the playoffs to begin with and responded with three runs in the top of the fifth inning and then another one in the top of the sixth to make it a game at 9-5.

If you read the top of the story, then you know Woodland got to work and managed to score six runs in the bottom of the inning to activate the 10-run mercy rule and win it 15-5.

After already scoring a run to make it 10-5, David Tanner would come up and just miss his second home run in as many days, hitting the top of the right field fence. He’d begrudgingly take the double that allowed senior Braydon Sandoval to score to make it 11-5.

Tanner then scored on a Carlos Vazquez fielder’s choice to make it 12-5. Salvemini came up and hit another double to knock in Vazquez and fellow freshman Cohen Dwyer to make it 14-5, leaving the Wolves on the brink of a semifinal berth.

Senior Joseph Cadotte came up and, after a few nerve-wracking pitches, hit a grounder past the second basemen and into right field, allowing Salvemini to round third and then easily score, giving the Wolves the 15-5 win.

While he was great at the plate and on the base paths, Salvemini was as effective on the mound, only walking one batter, striking out 10, and scattering 8 hits over six innings.