CIF Champonships: Helix claims D2 Title

By Nick Pellegrino
Updated: May 30, 2026

2026 EAST COUNTY PREP BASEBALL
CIF-San Diego Section Championships

East County Sports.com

Division 2 – Championship
Helix 8, Christian 2

ALCALA PARK — Helix slugger Angel Watkins, who ranks second in the CIF-San Diego Section with nuine home runs, failed to slug another dinger on Dsturday (May 30). Instead, the senior went deep to center field with a go-ahead triple which short-hooped the fence.

Although top-seeded Christian would immediately get even, the short by Watkins energized the Scotties, who scored eight times over the final three innings to top the Patriots, 8-4, to claim the section Division 2 title, held at USD’s Fowling Field (formerly Cunningham Stadium).

Angel Watkins

Trailing 3-0 on just two hits throught four innings, Helix rallied back with four runs in the fifth, mostly on the club’s usual small-ball antics.

Josh Rivera accepted a one-out walk, followed by a vasehit by Kei Smith through the left side of the infield.

Ben WIlliams ended Christian’s shutout bid with a line RBI single to right, then additional runs came home on an error and a fielder’s choice toknot the contest at 3-all

Then Watkins follpwed with his blast to center, brining home Bryan Herman and a 4-3 lead.

The Patriots fought backto tie in the home-half of the ining on three walks and an error, but the rest of the afternoon belonged to the Highlanders — agaon on station-to-station baseball.

The sixth started on an error, a Jakew Johnson sacrifice bunt, a walk, then a go-ahead, two-run single by Smith on a line drive to left for what proved to be the game-winning RBI.

An inning later, Romeo Briones stroked a lead single, then took three bases when a sacrifice bunt by Herman was thrown away into the right-field bullpen.

Johnson later posted a sacrifice fly, one of five sacrifice hits (bunts or fly outs) registered by Helix, the third seeds.

In the mound, Romeo Briones pi thed the first 4.2 frames, but he left in a tied ballgame. Owen Liddell gained the final out in the fifth, becoming the winning pitcher when Helix took the lead in the sixth.

From there, Williams, the closer,fired a pair of near-pefect fraames. Williams struck out three Chrisian batters and yielded just one hit in facinf just seven Patriots batters.

The Scotties (21-11), the winners of six straight and 13-of-1, advance to the CIF Southern California regional.

For Christian (21-10-1), freshman Talon Brown carried a two-hitter intothe fifth before coming out. Brown struck out four Helix batters.

Along the eight runs by Helix, five were unearned due to five Patriots bobbles.

The Patriots took a 3-0 in the third on consecutive doubles by center fielder Braeden Casey (1 RBI) and right fielder Caleb Brierley (2 RBI).ey finished with two of the ballclub’s six hits.

Watkins, Smith and Briones all posted two hits for Helix.

Historical Note: This was the first contest between th schools in 45 years… In the 1980-81 school year, Christian was a member of the Grossmont Conference — really! –with Helix sweeping the two-game series… Patriots head coach Mike Mitcell is now 504 in CIF section championship games, the highest coming in Division 3 in 1997… For Helixhead coach Cole Holland, this was his second title in four championship game appearances. He won the D2 crown He also won D2 in 2011, a year dter falling in the division’s finale. He also fell in the 2017 Open Division game to Eastlake.

— Nick Pellegrino