DHS boys 4x800 shine at first day of Masters

Enterprise staff

The Davis High boys 4x800 relay team were the first winners at the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Championship at Ron and Mary Brown Stadium on Friday.

The Blue Devils’ eight runners in Lucas Tam, Beckett Dolan, Brian Fackert, Jefferson Wright, Liam Lopez, Jay Doctor, Samuel Rosas and Ryan Mitchell won the first-ever taking place in the section’s history with a time of 8 minutes, 01.75 seconds.

Delta League rival Jesuit took second place at 8:02.05 and Woodcreek of Roseville third at 8:08.27.

Those top three teams advance to the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Championships, which will be held at the Veterans Memorial Stadium on the Buchanan High campus in Clovis on Friday, May 26 and Saturday, May 27.

Benjamin Feryer, a junior, took second place in the boys’ pole vault with a leap of 14 feet, 9 inches.

Turlock’s Maxwell McFarlane won by

softBaLL Aggies had hits, but no victory

Enterprise staff clearing the bar at an even 15 feet.

FORT COLLINS, Colo.

— UC Davis played its second game of the National Invitational Softball Championship against Tarleton State University, which posted a 10-4 win Friday morning.

Bella Pahulu had a home for UC Davis (2922) in the game.

Anna Dethlefson scored twice and had a hit for the Aggies. Delaney Diaz and Sarah Nakahara had a hit each, with Nakahara adding an RBI. Pitcher Kenedi Brown had a good performance for the Aggies. She struck out nine while allowing four runs on six hits.

Taylor Fitzgerald followed in the circle, gave up five hits and Mia Hildebrand yielded two hits in relief.

The Aggies would open the scoring in the top of the third inning on Sarah Starks’ single through the left side, which scored Dethlefson.

The Texans would tie the game in the top of the fourth inning on a solo home run to left center.

Then Tarleton State would take the lead for good in the top of the sixth inning with three runs — two coming on a double to center field and one coming on a single to center field.

The Aggies would get a run back in the bottom of the sixth inning as Alyssa Ito scored on a Nakahara single to left field.

The Texans’ offense would score six runs in the top of the seventh inning.

The Aggies would get two runs back in the bottom of the seventh inning on a Pahulu tworun dinger to right center, which also plated Dethlefson.

The Aggies’ 2023 record is their first winning season since 2020.

UCD posted a 15-12 record in Big West Conference — their second winning season in the last three campaigns.

Feyrer and McFarlane, along with Jesuit’s Collin Young who took third place at 14-09, also advance to the state meet.

The Masters continued today.

Results of the second day of the Masters will be on The Enterprise’s Website and Wednesday’s edition.

UC Davis baseball

Six UC Davis baseball players combined for 14 hits in Friday’s Big West Conference home series against UC Irvine.

But UC Irvine made the best of its 12 hits, which led to a 10-5 win over UCD (7-18 in the Big West, 17-32 overall).

Alex Gouveia and Leighton Helfrick had three hits each for the Aggies.

Joey Wright, along with UCD teammates Damian Stone and Mark Wolbert, had two hits each. Nick Iverson had a hit.

Today at 1 p.m. at Dobbins Stadium UCD will host UCI for the Aggies’ final home game of the 2023 season.

no.

Zavod reaches milestone on diamond

By Henry Krueger Enterprise correspondent

In many respects, nothing felt different for 17-year-old Sam Zavod as he prepared to umpire a Davis Little League playoff game on Monday.

The Davis High junior had plenty of experience making calls during highstakes matchups and was unfazed by the number of people who packed the bleachers at the DLL Complex’s West Field.

However, this wasn’t just any game for Zavod.

It was No. 500.

In attendance to watch Zavod reach the career milestone were some of his family and friends, including his dad, Matt, who was also umpiring the contest.

“It was very neat to be able to do the game with my dad because he’s been a very big part of my career as an umpire and so having him out there was special,” Zavod said.

Achieving the 500game mark didn’t happen overnight, with Zavod’s interest in umpiring stretching back to when he was 9 years old.

Back then, he would stand in front of the television with an indicator, a homemade umpire mask and a plastic popcorn Giants helmet, while pretending to make calls.

Matt eventually spoke to the umpire-in-chief at the time for DLL, Paul Hasson, to see if the younger Zavod could become an arbiter.

Hasson was on board with the idea and wasn’t concerned about having an umpire who was younger than many of the kids still playing Little League.

“It was weird, but it was cool because I was like, ‘Oh I had just played Double-A and now I get to see it as an umpire,” Zavod said of his earliest experiences calling games.

As time went on, Zavod began handling bigger assignments, such as UC Davis scrimmages and

Little League all-star games.

In a sport where players often fail more than they succeed, Zavod considers mistakes and shortcomings as a challenging, yet necessary part of the game. He’s not in favor of implementing robot umpires and other procedures that seek to eliminate failure from baseball.

“With robot umpires, people are going to realize that it’s not that much better,” Zavod said. “It takes away from the imperfections of baseball, which I found to make baseball more enjoyable.”

Zavod also noted the drastic improvements of umpires across the sport, especially with the modern technology available to analyze strike zones.

“You’ll see that a lot of the new guys have much better strike zone scorecards because they’ve been calling to the computer their whole careers,” Zavod said. “I think people will realize that and arya LaLvani/enterprise photo hopefully understand they don’t need robots.”

Zavod takes a break in between innings to pose at Davis Little League’s West Field on Monday night.

Even with big-league aspirations, Zavod is prioritizing his education.

“I’m planning on going through college first and then making a move at Major League Baseball,” Zavod said.

ZAVOD, Page B8