The Pioneer High School varsity baseball team kept up the pace in a close Golden Empire League race by completing a three-game sweep over league and proximity rivals Dixon High School.

With the 11-2 win Friday night, the Patriots (11-2 GEL) won their seventh game in a row and are in the midst of an absolute tear, keeping league leaders Woodland High School within reaching distance. They have won those seven games by a combined score of 43-5, with one being a forfeit win against Mira Loma.

“After last week and not swinging the bat as well as I thought we could, it was huge for us to open up our bats coming into this series,” Patriots head coach Craig Marquez said. “It’s a fun combination to have to follow it up with our pitching.”

The winning streak began with an 8-0, April 11 win over Casa Roble before completing the sweep over them in the final two games by the close scores of 2-0 and 1-0.

They then hosted Dixon High School this past Tuesday, April 18, for game one of the series and defeated them 10-0.

Carson Timothy was dominant once again for the Patriots in that game, tossing a complete game shutout, highlighted by 12 strikeouts, only one walk, and two hits allowed.

At the plate, Kiki Martinez and Landon Dahler had two RBI apiece, while Sammy Sanchez had a game-high three RBI. Timothy and Jack Cullison each scored two runs as well.

After the forfeit victory over Mira Loma on Wednesday, the Patriots took game two of the series on Thursday 11-3. Matias Michel and Ben Reis pitched for the Patriots, with Michel going six innings, striking out five, and allowing three runs, and Reis slamming the door shut with a strikeout in his sole inning of work.

At the plate in game two, Ryan Pearson led the way with three RBI and a home run, while Dahler and Luke Ferreira knocked in two runs of their own. Dahler also scored three runs while going a perfect 3-3 at the plate. Hayden Newsom, Pearson, Timothy and Cullison all scored two.

For game three Friday night, the Patriots handed the ball to Drew Van Court, who pitched five strong innings, only allowing two runs. Offensively the Patriots enjoyed a fast start and aimed to trigger the 10-run mercy rule again by scoring four in the game’s first inning.

With Timothy, Ferreira, and Pearson on with the bases loaded, Cullison and Sanchez hit back-to-back singles knocking in Timothy and Ferreria to make it 2-0.

Rolando Ramos knocked home Pearson before Cullison made it home on a passed ball at home plate to make it 4-0. In the bottom of the second, the Patriots kept at it with two more runs pushing the lead to 6-0.

“It was a great win by coming out and scoring four in the first inning,” Marquez said. “We kept adding runs and putting pressure on Dixon as the game went on. I give credit to my guys. They really are taking it one game at a time, putting good at-bats together and still pitching well.”

Dixon battled back and cut the lead thanks to scraping one run in the third and another in the fourth to cut the lead to 6-2.

However, Pioneer regained control of the game in the bottom of the fourth, if they didn’t have it already.

Three straight one-out singles from Ferreria, Pearson and Drew Van Court loaded the bases for Cullison. A passed ball allowed Ferreria to score to make it 7-2 before Cullison drew a walk to re-load the bases. Sanchez then drew his own walk, bringing Pearson home to make it 8-2.

Ramos came up with two outs and knocked in Van Court thanks to a fielding error from the Dixon shortstop, making it 9-2.

A run from Christian Canchola in the bottom of the fifth and Ramos in the bottom of the sixth allowed Nico Rodriguez to close out the game to give the Patriots an 11-2 win.

Next for Pioneer will be a busy week filled with their final five but winnable games against the teams at the bottom of the GEL.

On Monday, April 24, they will hit the road for a rescheduled game to take on Mesa Verde for the third time this season. On Tuesday, they’ll remain on the road when they take on Rio Londa, and on Wednesday, they are scheduled to take the third trip of the week when they face Mira Loma.

They’ll return home briefly on Thursday and host Rio Londa at Pioneer High School before taking off for the final game of the week at Rio Linda on Friday. All games are scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

“We want to play all the games,” Marquez said. “It’s what the weather delays did for us this year. We just have to come out and take it one game at a time. I feel confident going into a five-game week with the guys that we have. The league has always been good, you have to take care of business on your end and then see what place you end up with at the end of the season.”