East County Sports

CIF Baseball: The ‘Spring’ has sprung

2024 EAST COUNTY PREP BASEBALL
CIF-San Diego Section Championships

 

ECS staff report

SPRING VALLEY – For the first time in ages (ever?), the high school baseball clubs representing the Spring Valley — Monte Vista and Mount Miguel — earned the right to play for San Diego Section championships after claiming their respective brackets at the CIF championship.

Meanwhile, a former Spring Valley program,Liberty Chrter (which recently relocated to Alpine) fell in extra innings in its bid for a first-ever title.

Division 4

Monte Vista 11, Imperial 3

SPRING VALLEY – A quarter-century can be a very, very long time.

The last time Monte Vista played for a CIF-San Diego Section crown came in 2000. The last time the Monarchs actually won such a title: try in 1998 — that’s the 20th Century.

However, all that can change this weekend when MNonte Vista earned an opportunity to claim the Division 4 banner by advancing after whiping Imperial, 11-4, in Tyeaday’s (May 21) bracket finale.

The Monarchs will take on University City at UC San Diego in a 4 p.m. battle thiis Saturday,

C1-0, 3-0, 5-2, onsistentcy marked the day after the Moarchs scred in each of the first five innings to pull away, urilzing an 11-hit attack for leads of 1-0, 3-0, 5-1 and 8-3 before adding three additional runs in the fifth to tame the Tigers.

David Aceron belted an erly 2-run homer to get things started. It was Aceron’s second of the season.

Most id rhe damae was handed out by Damian Ordaz, who posted three RBI on two hits and scoring twice.

Diwgo Cotez and Gavin Daley also added a pair of RBI each.

The pitching victory went to David Rodriguez, who may not have posted flashy numbers, yet was also consistent on the moud in going six innings and staying mostly out of trouble.

By eating innings, Rodriguez allowed Monte Vista to select from three other pitchers to start the title contests agaisnt the top-seeded Centurions.

The Monarcs (21-10-1), the second seeds, now owns their most wins since 2017 (20) and seek to equal the mark of 21 set in 2011 (22-10), the school’s best mark in the 21st Century.

 

Division 5

Mount Miguel 10, Orange Glen 1

SPRING VALLEY – The Mount Miguel Matadors will play in a section championship for thr first time since 2019, and attempt to claim its first CIFSDS banner after rippimg Oramhe G;em.10-1, in Tuesday
s (May 21) bracket title round.

The Matadors (14-16) will face Kearny in the division championshipgae,slated for Thursday at 4 p.m. from UC San Diego’s Triton Field.

Three runs on the team’s first trip to the plater was all that was needed to pardon the Pareiors with their second tournament loss and preventing a playback final.

The contest stayed close for a while at 3-1, the the hosts poured in five runs in the fifth to earn their berth.

A 12-hit attack saw Alfredo Rodriguez pumped a triple and a double, while Junior Ettleman posted three hits and scored each time.

In addition, Tyler Kelly set a season-best with four RBI. His three hits for the day was one shy of a season-best.

Winning pitcher Charies Sandoval yielded just one unearned run over 5.2 innings. Sandoval struck out nine Patriots batters.

Division 5-AA

Calvin Christian 2, Liberty Charter 1 (8 inn.)

ESCONDIDO – The Liberty Charter Lions came within one round of playing for the Division 5-AA champipnsiip, but were barely eliminated by top-seeded Calvin Christian, 2-1 in 8 innings, in the final round of the upper bracket.

The Crusaders (21-4 overall) will face The Rock in Thursday title contest, to be playe dat UC San Diego.

Liberty Charter finished with a 10-17 ledger.

In a quirky statistic, the Lions have never won an extra-inning game in their 11-year history (accordinfg to MaxPreps), including two contests this season.

Liberty Charter’s lone run came on a solo homer by Jaxon Adrain, who send a drive into the netting in left field. For the senior, it was his club-leading fourth homer of the season to finish second in the division behing The Rock catcher Diego MunozC (5).

Freshman Logan Hays later added a double, otherwise, the Lions were limited to just four basehits by he Crusaders.

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