East County Sports

East County lower divisions do well

2024 EAST COUNTY  PREP BASEBALL
CIF-San Diego Section Championships

 

Compiled by Nick Pellegrino
ECS Senior writer

Division 5

Mount Miguel 11, SD-High Tech 2

SPRING VALLEY – The sleepy mount Miguel Matadors allowd a pair of early run to San Diego-High Tech, then ripped out 11 unanswered runs to stuff the Storm, 11-2, in a winners backet final of the CIFSDS Division 5 tournasment.

The Matadors (13-16 overall) will get Saturday off, then need to win one of two bracket finals next week to gain the overall championship contest

Tuesday’s opponent will be the Orange Glen-SDHTH winner, wityh an “if necessary” playback final slated for Thursday.

Trailing 2-0, Mount Miguel immediately answered with a run, then added a pair of markers in the fourth for a 3-2 lead.

The Matadors kept ther lead thanks to a double plau converted by seniors Xavier Reyes and Tyler Kwlly, then the outcome was officially decided in the sixth, when the Matadors tallied eight times to remain undefeated in the tournament, along with Kearny from the upper bracket.

Alfredo Rodriguez fueled the Matadors offense with four hits, incvluding a home run and three RBI.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah Castillo, an all-league football player, also displated his prowess with the bat with a home run and four RBI.

Despite the pair of early runs, winning pitcher Matt Barton lasted six frames, closing with 5.1 innings of shutout ball. Barton struck out six Storm batters.

Mountain Empire 15, Army-Navy 2

BUCKMAN SPRINGS – According to the San Diego Historical Society, the “Amny & Navy Academy” — its original name — was founded in Pacific Beach before moving to beachfront proprty in Carlsbad.

And Army-Navy played like a bunch of surfers.

The Warriors were charged with seven errors, meaning host Mountain Empire couldn’t help but race to an easy 15-2 triumph in the CIFSDS Division 5 tournament.

The margin of victory was the largest by the RedHawks since 2018, when they dismantled Calvary Christian Academy of Chula Vsita. 22-8. The wipeout came just a week after falling to the Royal Knights, 4-3.

Note: CCA has since dropped baseball.

Mountain Empire (13-5) will travel to Coastal Academy of Oceanside in Saturday’s challenger rbracket final. The winner then will need to defeat Kearny twice next week to reach the title game.

Individual statistics for The Empire were nt reported… and they won!

 

Division 5-AA

Liberty Charter 18, CV-Victory Christian 7

CHULA VISTA – Liberty Charter posted the greatest postseason victory in schools history when “las lichas” (the moths) swatted the Victory Chrisdtia JKnights, 18-7, in Friday’s D-5AA eliminatiuon contest.

Jaxon Adrain and Brody Harris each belted RBI triples for the Lions, but look at the following RBI totals.

Driving in multiple runs for Liberty Charter were: Drake Keehl (5), Logan Hays (4), Isaac Anderson (3) and Ernest Sanders (2).

Setting the table withthree runs each were: Nathan Miller, Andruw Godinez and Keehl.

Liberty Charter (9-16) needs to win three straight to play for the division championships, starting with Saturday win-or-go=home game at Borrego Springs.


Calvin Christian 8, Borrego Springs 7

ESCONDIDO – AA major Borrego Springs raslly say the Rams scored three times in both the sixth and seventh inning, yet fell one short in falling to the Calvin Christian Crusaders, 7-6, in a Division 5-AA CIF playoff game.

While Calvin Christian advanced to the bracket final, the Rams can still gert there with a SDaturday when they host “next door neighbor: Liberty Charter of Alpine.

The Lions, the No. 8 seed, upset No. 4 Chula Vista-Victory Christian, 18-7.

Open Division

Carlsbad 4, Patrick Henry 2

SAN CARLOS – It’s the nature of how tournament brackets work: two teams will win twice, two teams will lose twice, and the others will go 1-1.

\For Patrick Henry, unfortunately, it was “oh-and-2-and-barbecue” after the sixth-seeded Patriots fell at home to No. 7 Carlsbad, 4-2, to become the first casualty in the CIFSDS Open FDivision championship.

Granite Hills secured an easy 7-1 decision over the Pats on Wednesday, then the LKanders limted Henry to just three hits in the elimination contest.

Carlsbad pulled even with a run in the sixth, then scored twice in the seventh to escape, thanks to a 2-run basehit by Matt Kelley.

The Patriots run came courtesy from the heart of the batting order.

In the fourth, Preston Conklin doubled, then scored on a Jack Giordano basehit to tie the contest at 1-1 in the fourth.

An inning later, Cody Cappelletti knocked in Talin Gardini with the go-ahead run before Carlsbad’s late comeback.

Cappelletti tossed the first six inning, but left with no decision despite throwing 5-hit ball.

Patrick Henry finished at 21-8-1, reaching the 10-win plateau for the fifth straight non-COVID season in a row.

 

Division 4

Imperial 3, Monte Vsta 2 (11 inn.)

SPRING VALLEY – The Monte Vista Monarchs woke-up in tgime to score twicein the bottom of the seventh inning, but after 11 frames, it was visiting Imperial which prevailed to take a 3-2 decision in a winners bracket final of the CIFSDS Division 4 tournament.

Monte Vista (19-10-1) can still reeach the title, but will need three straight wins, starting Saturday against Escondio Charter.

The White Tigers eliminated Palo Verde Valley, 5-2.

Should Monte Vista defeat Escondido Charter of its first 20-win season since 2017, then when then need to stop Imperial (22-6) twice –both at home — to gian the championship.

In the seventh, Monte Vista’s rally was set up when second baseman RRRRR Cabugwas was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

David Aceron followed with a 2-run line double to center field, but the poetential gane-winning runne rwas hekd at third.

In the 11th, a one-out rally saw Imperial load the bases on singls by Carter Tucker and Hernandez, then Angel Barron.

Sophomore catcher Jacob Gastelum followed with a ground ball to the right side, but not directly at an infielder, leaving a throw to the only option at first base while T ucker came home.

Monte Vista’s last chance saw second baseman Ryan Cabugwas walk, but Barron coiaxed a pop out and a shallow fly ball to garner the pitching victory.


Division 3

Valhalla 3, Calexico 1

RANCHO SAN DIEGO – No information reported from the top-seeded Valhalla Norsemen, which get two chances early next week to advance to the next Saturday’s CIFSDS D-3 title game.

Division 5

Orange Glen 6, El Cajon Valey 4

ESCONDIDO – El Cajon Valley trimmed a 5-0 deficit to close to withint 5-4 in the sixth inning.However, the Patriots also scored in the sicxth to take a 6-4 decision in aDivision 5 eliminatiobn ballgame.

 

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