Sweeping a league rival is very difficult, and that proved to be the case under the lights at Clark Field Friday night as the Woodland High School varsity baseball team fell 9-8 in extra innings to Golden Empire League foes Casa Roble.

The Wolves (10-6, 7-5 GEL) came into Friday night’s series finale comfortably in third place of the GEL, behind Sutter and Rio Linda, looking to sweep the Rams (6-7, 5-5 GEL) after taking the first two games of the series by the slimmest of margins.

Monday evening’s thrilling 7-6 home win was followed by an even closer 4-3 road win during Wednesday’s game two, where the Wovles found themselves down 3-2 going into the final inning.

After Casa Roble got off to a 2-0 lead, the Wolves cut it to 2-1 in the top of the third before falling back behind by two runs in the bottom of the fourth. One run in the top of the sixth and then 2 in the top of the seventh were enough to give Woodland the win.

Freshman Riley Salvemin pitched 5 innings for the Wolves, allowing 7 hits and a walk while only allowing 2 earned runs and a modest 4 strikeouts. Junior Dylan Johns pitched the other 2 innings, striking out 4 batters and allowing no hits.

At the plate, Dylan Ramirez led the way with 2 RBI and 3 hits. Senior Joseph Quezada 2 hits and a run batted in.

Friday night’s game got off to a great start and had the brooms ready to come out as the Wolves scored 2 runs in the bottom of the second and another run in the bottom of the third to take a 3-0 lead.

In the top of the fourth, however, things started to go south. Two Wolves errors led to a 1 out 2 RBI single from the Rams that cut the lead to just 3-2.

A few batters later, Casa Roble would double a liner to left field allowing two more runs to score to give the Rams a 4-3 lead.

In the top of the fifth, the pressure continued to build as the Rams got another run across home play via a sacrifice fly to center to make it 5-3. Then, the wheels looked to fully come off as the Rams would soon blast a line drive 3-run home run to break the game open at 8-3.

The Wolves needed to get to work and responded in the bottom half of the fifth with two runs, courtesy of a Joseph Cadotte RBI that scored Dylan Ramirez and a base,es-loaded Joseph Quezada walk that brought home PJ Pinegar to make it 8-5.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Wolves scored four runs and took a 9-8 lead. Cohen Dwyer, who gave up the home run the inning before, led off with a triple before freshman phenom Riley Salvemini singled him home to make it 8-6.

After a Pinegar walk and a bloop single from David Tanner, the Wolves had the bases loaded again. Quezada would come up again in a high-leverage situation and go for a bunt to advance all the runners. The Casa Roble catcher would bungle the throw to first and sail it over the first baseman’s head, allowing Salvemini and Pinegar to score and tie it up at 8-8.During the next at bat, a wild throw to second base from the catcher attempting to throw out Tanner would sail into center field and allow him to score, giving the Wolves a crucial 9-8 lead going into the final inning.

In the top of the seventh, the Wolves managed to get two outs on the board, but the Rams had baserunners all over. With the game looking to be over, disaster struck.

A seemingly routine pop fly to the first baseman’s side would miraculously find a way to not get caught and allow the baserunner from second base to score amid the confusion and make it 9-9.

After a scoreless bottom of the seventh, the Rams would take full advantage of the Wolves and scratch and claw a lone eighth-inning run to take a 10-9 lead and eventually the game.

Up next for the Wolves will be a three-game series against El Camino, who sit in sixth place in the league.

The first game is set for Monday, April 7, at El Camino High School, with the first pitch set for 4:15 p.m. The second game of the series will be at Clark Field on Wednesday, April 9 at 4:15 p.m. The final game of the series will be back at El Camino on Friday, April 11, also at 4:15 p.m.