Rio Americano fires back-to-back perfect games, earning name-drop on A’s broadcast
.jpeg "From left: Joey Dormann, Everett Fillipo and Pierce Tully combined on back-to-back perfect games for Rio Americano during the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. The Raiders beat Patterson 10-0 on Friday at home. Fillipo, the catcher, caught the perfect games by pitchers Tully and Dormann.")
The Rio Americano Raiders have played two games in this CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoff tournament, and they have yet to surrender anything.
No runs allowed, no walks — no batters reaching base at all, as the top-seeded team in the Division III bracket has cruised past Armijo of Fairfield 17-0 and Patterson of Stanislaus County 10-0 on Friday on the strength of back-to-back, 5-inning gems by Pierce Tully and Joey Dormann.
The feats prompted Athletics broadcaster Dallas Braden to name-drop and program-promote during Friday’s A’s broadcast in Baltimore. While with the A’s, Braden tossed a perfect game — the 19th of 24 ever in MLB history — to beat the Tampa Bay Rays on Mother’s Day in 2010.
Braden is a Stockton native who starred at American River College in Sacramento. He has known Rio Americano coaches Jason Landreth and Mike Torres for years, since their time at ARC under then-Beavers coach Kevin Higgins, who frequents Rio games and practices. Braden mentioned both pitchers and those coaches in his broadcast as the A’s played the Baltimore Orioles.
In the opening-round rout of Armijo, Tully struck out 11 batters to move to 6-1 on the season with a 1.67 ERA.
In Friday’s second-round home game, Dormann struck out four as the defense again was flawless with no errors to advance the Raiders into next week’s best-of-three semifinal round. Dormann is 9-0 with an 0.58 ERA.
The 24-6 Raiders open on Tuesday at home against the winner of Friday’s late game between Christian Brothers and Yuba City.
Everett Filippo was the catcher for both of the perfect games for Rio Americano, and he belted a home run on Friday and had two RBIs.
Star shortstop Trey Howell-Chase had two hits and two RBIs for Rio Americano, and Luke Rolli also drove in a pair of runs. Branden Leu had two hits and a run, and Derek Cale scored three runs. Bryce Kurihara and Austin Nye each had an RBI.
On Wednesday against Armijo, Howell-Chase had three hits and two RBIs, George Landis had two hits and three RBIs and Gale homered and drove in three.
The games were stopped after the top half of the fifth inning due to the CIF mercy rule. High school games otherwise go seven innings.
This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 7:12 PM.