As the season winds down, the Woodland High School varsity baseball team seems to have saved its best ball for last as they wrapped up a three-game sweep over new Golden Empire League foes Destiny Christian Academy 8-1 Friday night at Clark Field.

With the win, the Wolves (19-7, 13-5 GEL) remained one game ahead of perennial league favorites Case Roble for second place in the GEL standings, but also remained a full five games behind soon-to-be champions Sutter.

“I think we are really hitting our stride in all aspects of baseball, including pitching, hitting, playing defense, and stealing a lot of bags,” Wolves head coach Danny Eoff said. “It’s good for them all to finally see what we are capable of doing when we not only work together but stay in the right headspace.”

Following their second sweep of the year over El Camino, the week of April 7 through April 11, the Wolves took a break from GEL play with a tournament they’d go 3-1 in thanks to a 10-0 win over Grant, a 12-2 win over Center and a 10-3 win over Cordova. Their only loss was a 6-2 defeat to Lincoln.

Following the great showing, the Wolves resumed GEL play on Monday with the series opener against Destiny Christian, which they won 12-2.

Sophomore PJ Pinegar led the way with 3 RBI, while freshman Riley Salvemini had a game-high 3 hits to go with 3 runs and 1 RBI. Junior Dylan Ramirez had 2 RBI, 2 runs, and a hit.On the mound, David Tanner started and pitched 5 shutout innings, striking out 4 before Cohen Dwyer would come in to slam the door shut in the top of the sixth with an inning pitched.

In game two of the series this past Wednesday at Destiny Charter, the Wolves found themselves in a bit more of a challenging game, but still came out on top 5-1.

Pinegar, Salvemini, Ramirez and Braydon Sandoval all had an RBI each, with Dwyer scoring a game-high 2 runs.

Salvemini was lights out on the mound, taking a perfect game into the sixth inning. He’d finish with 6.1 innings pitched, only allowing 1 hit, 1 walk, and a run while racking up 9 strikeouts.

The Wolves kicked off Friday’s home series finale with a Pinegar run in the bottom of the second inning after a double from senior Joseph Quezada.

After a quiet third inning, the Wolves went off for four runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 5-1 lead.

Aiden Lopez helped out his own cause from the mound by singling to score Quezada to make it 2-0. Dwyer then came up to single and score senior Joseph Cadotte for another run to make it 3-0.

After Salvemini reached base on a single, a throwing error allowed both Sandoval and Lopez to score and make it 5-0.

Destiny Christian would get one back in the top of the fifth on a fielder’s choice to make it 5-1, but that would not be nearly enough as the Wolves poured on 3 more runs in the bottom half of the fifth.

Cadotte would lead off the inning on a one-man offensive mission by drawing a walk before eventually stealing second base. He then stole third base and managed to score on the bad throw to make it 6-1.

Tanner then came up and tripled a ball to deep center, eventually scoring on another passed ball to make it 7-1. After Sandoval reached base, he’d make his way to third base and eventually score on a balk that made it the eventual 8-1 score.

Lopez finished the game from the mound with 6 innings pitched, allowing 3 hits, 1 run, and picking up 6 strikeouts. Dwyer finished off the game’s final inning with no hits allowed.

“Aiden came out and did a great job of holding them to only one run,” Eoff said. “He gave us a chance on the mound, and our offense has been putting up runs all year. I think we are averaging around 9 runs a game.”

Up next for the Wolves will be the final league series of the season against fourth-placed Rio Linda, who sit a mere three games behind them.

“I just want us to hit on all cylinders going into the postseason,” Eoff said. “I want us to finish strong and not look past Monday’s game with an eye towards the postseason. Hopefully, we can get another sweep and be primed for postseason play.”

The first game of the series is set for Monday, April 28, at home, with the second game set for Wednesday at Rio Linda High School. The series finale and Wolves Senior Night is set for Friday, May 2, with all games set to start at 4:15 p.m.

“This is my first full class, so I’ve had the seniors for all four years,” Eoff said. “They are very selfless guys, whether they are winning or losing or playing or not. They show up every day, have fun, and are great team guys. They’ll all be missed.”