Former Star Sintes shuts out Stars

By ECS Staff
Updated: July 2, 2018

2018 SAN DIEGO STARS BASEBALL

East County Sports staff report

SANTEE (7-2-2018) — Former San Diego Stars pitcher Jon Sintes, who performed mainly in Money brand tournaments rather than in the summer collegiate league, came back to haunt his former teammates.

Sintes, who pitched for Durango in the Mexico professional league last summer, carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning Sunday (July 1), leading the San Diego Reign to a 10-0, run-rule decision over the Stars in Sunday’s (July 1) final pool-play contest at the 24th annual NBC Western Regional tournament.

Sintes finished with a 1-hit shutout, striking out eight and walking two.

The lone Stars base hit came from Dallas Seidel, who entered the event with a club-leading .568 batting average, yet was mired in a mild 1-10 slump during the event. However, Seidel snapped Sintes’ no-hit bid with a solid single to center field.

Seidel then stole second base but was stranded, then the Reign scored once in the bottom of the seventh to invoke the run rule.

Following the regional to determine a berth to the National Baseball Congress World Series, the Stars will start the second half o the Western Baseball Association schedule with another meeting with the Reign on Thursday (July) at UC San Diego.

NBCWR: Stars streak ends at 18 wins

East County Sports staff report

SANTEE (7-1-2018) — Twenty years ago, when the New York Yankees came to San Diego to complete a 4-game sweep of the San Diego Padres to capture the World Series, the “Bronx Bombers” completed a remarkable season, winning 125 games (regular season and playoffs combined).

However, the Yankees also lost 50 contests that season.

In merely a statistical comparison, the 2018 edition of the San Diego Stars also now know the feeling of loss. On Saturday (June 30), despite scoring in both the 1st and 9th innings, the Stars saw their summer-long, 18-game winning streak snapped after falling to the West Coast Clippers, 8-2, in the second pool-play round of the 24th annual NBC Western Regional tournament.

With the victory, the Clippers have assured a berth into Monday’s championship semifinals. Meanwhile, the Stars (18-1 overall) must take Sunday’s final pool play ballgame to also advance among the final four, hosting the San Diego Reign at West Hills High, starting at 3 p.m.

Currently, the Reign hold the tie-breaker over the Stars, but that would prove moot because of the head-to-head meeting unless the outing finishes in a tie due to darkness.

The Stars opened the scoring when Pineda triples on a line drive to center fielder to open the ballgame, scoring two batters later on a double play. The other run saw Colton Ybarra reach on an error, with pinch-runner Carl Bunday eventually scoring on a series of walks to Ty Andrews, Hunter Markel and Kyle Pineda.

For the contest, Pineda, a Grossmont High alum, batted 2-for-4 with an RBI walk and a run scored.