YUBA CITY, CA (MPG) - The Yuba City Honkers fell into unfamiliar territory as they were swept by the Woodcreek Timberwolves of Roseville in a 13-9 defeat on Friday, April 14.

The loss to Woodcreek resulted in the first time Yuba City has been swept in a series this season and surrendered their first series of the Capital Valley Conference play.

Honkers head coach Maury Castaneda reiterated past conversations with the Dispatch by saying the CVC is one of the most competitive baseball leagues in the area.

Woodcreek was ranked in the top 10 of the Sacramento Bee’s poll in the middle of March and overtook Yuba City and Bella Vista for first place in the CVC standings with the sweep over the Honkers.

The Timberwolves put up four runs in the first inning off senior pitcher C.J. Hopper. Hopper had an off-night as he struggled to get the ball in the strike zone with 29 total pitches and 11 strikes thrown.

Woodcreek tacked on nine more runs in the second inning, with six hits in the inning off Yuba City senior relievers Aaron Dalpoggetto and Greg Quirarte.

Quirarte threw 5.1 innings with blemishing four hits and one run on the night, while he struck out four.

“I’m very proud of him (Quirarte), he came in when we needed him and showed up,” Castaneda said.

The brightest spot of Quirarte’s appearance on the mound was he pounded the strike zone by throwing 72% of his pitches for strikes.

“I just came in and did my best to throw strikes,” Quirarte said. “I had a good defense behind me and trusted them to make the plays.”

With the Honkers being down 13 after two innings, they could have rolled over and just checked out of the game, but they didn’t.

Yuba City (12-8, 7-5 CVC) put up their own set of crooked numbers for a couple innings as they got on the scoreboard in the third inning when Hopper hit a RBI single to right field. The Honkers scored three runs off of four hits in the third inning.

They followed suit in the fourth inning as Yuba City plated five more runs to cut the deficit to 13-8 off of two hits. The hitting leader of the Honkers at the plate was senior outfielder and California State University - Sacramento commit Brent Gallegos, who went three-for-four on the night with a double and two RBI’s.

Although Yuba City experienced its first CVC series defeat of the season, Gallegos expressed to the Dispatch that this wasn’t the end of their season and they still have more work to do. “We still have games to play and we will keep hustling through the rest of the season,” Gallegos said.

After the fourth inning, the game was stalemated for the remainder as the score stayed 13-8 until the Honkers added their final run in the bottom of the seventh where Gallegos hit an RBI-single.

Yuba City started another CVC series with Bella Vista this week as they looked to stay in the top three of the CVC standings.

“We have to play Yuba City baseball and play our game,” Castaneda said.

The Honkers beat Bella Vista during the El Camino Easter Tournament April 3-5 in round-robin play. Although it was one game and a small sample size, Yuba City did rack up 17 hits the one time they played Bella Vista.