Prep baseball: Del Campo wins another thriller, tops Vanden for Division III championship
When it was over Wednesday night, when the group hugs ended and the good news of no practice on Thursday was warmly received, Hayden Hughes wound up with the blue banner.
It was handed to him by Del Campo High School baseball coach Kevin Dawidczik, who stamped the 6-foot-2 senior do-all talent as the region’s best performer this season. That’s his vote, and the coach is sticking with it.
“He hits for us, he pitches for us, he leads us by example, he’s a 4.3 student, and he’s just a stud,” Dawidczik said of Hughes.
Hughes is hardly a one-man gang, but he leads the gang. He’s the humble star, sporting a 10-1 record as the staff ace who credits everyone else. He even tried to hand the banner back to anyone. No deal. At Sacramento City College’s Union Stadium, Hughes did his part on the mound as the starting pitcher in tossing six shutout innings with five strikeouts, and though Jordan Jacobson got the win in relief, everyone in blue and gold Cougars colors departed a jubilant winner.
Second-seeded Del Campo scored twice in the top of the eighth inning to defeat top-seeded Vanden 4-2 in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division III thriller. The first CIF Northern California Regional playoff tournament looms next week.
In its third successive section-title appearance, Del Campo won its second crown under Dawidczik since 2018, third since 2013 and fifth since 1985. There are programs everywhere, certainly, and then there are tradition-rich ones that keep on excelling over the decades.
What especially pleased Dawidczik this season hasn’t necessarily been his resilient ballplayers or their 29-5 record, but it is the input from teachers on the Fair Oaks campus.
“Amazing character guys,” the coach said. “I get emails from other teachers on campus, not about how good they are as baseball players but how good they are in class. I love that.”
Del Campo trailed 2-0 after the first inning after the Vikings of Fairfield pounced with a two-run home run by Jake Tranchina. With Vikings ace Erick Diez sporting a 10-0 record and striking out five in the early innings, Del Campo faced quite a challenge. So what else is new, right?
The Cougars just got past Buhach Colony of Atwater in a tense three-game semifinal series that included a forfeit that was overturned by an appeals panel, high drama and more.
Against Vanden, Del Campo scored twice in the fourth inning, with Thomas Martinez doubling home Logan McCord and Robbie Perry singling in Martinez. In the eighth, a throwing error scored McCord and Surreal Haro scored pinch runner Luke Tuter with a double, and then the Cougars held on with Jacobson and Martinez pitching the final outs.
Other key cogs this season include outfielders Matt Moses and Anthony Martinez, infielder Tyler Moore and designated hitter Jacobson. It’s added up to 16 wins out of the last 17 outings, and with Dawidczik telling his ecstatic team in the outfield a well after the game that they were, “The greatest Del Campo baseball team in school history.”
Back to Hughes, the young man carrying the blue manner. His senior class graduates June 4, but there’s still some season left with the NorCal event. He will attend Sierra College and aims to continue his perfect grades and earn more pitching victories.
“All the work we put in, it’s paid off,” Hughes said. “For me, it’s been worth it. I started playing when I was 4 years old. Fourteen years of it. I love this too much to stop.”
Hughes was understandably nervous coming in, given the moment and the venue. He handled it fine. He has regularly received insight on poise and pitching from his father, Eric, a Del Campo pitcher in the early 1990s, and his mother, Jenny, who tries to ease her son’s anxiety by being the nervous one.
“I kept telling myself to be more excited than nervous,” Hughes said.
As players received their championship medals and caps, Del Campo fans stood and applauded their guys.
“Awesome,” is how coach Dawidczik described it.
The coach has no voice, spent from so much cheering and barking. Playing at Union Stadium was also a blast for the coach, a return to his roots. He played for Sac City in the mid 2000s, as did Del Campo assistant coach Craig Taylor.
“I’m just exhausted,” Dawidczik said with a laugh. “There isn’t a group anywhere that puts as much time in as we do. So happy for these guys.”
Vanden will also advance to the NorCals. The Vikings were attempting a rare triple-crown feat: winning section championships in football, basketball and baseball.
This story was originally published May 26, 2022 at 6:03 AM.