GVL baseball ‘calls’ for mulligan

By Nick Pellegrino
Updated: March 29, 2022

2022 EAST COUNTY PREP BASEBALL

By Nick Pellegrino
ECS staff writer

EL CAJON — Did you ever play the game “Telephone” in elementary school?

WIth all of your classmates aligned in a circle, the first person whispers a short sentencew to the person next to them. That person repeats the statement to a third classmate, continuing until the statement returns to the original person.

How many times is the statement changed or even completge different? Probably always.

Last week, we talked about how the Grossmont Valley League came up with a unique league schedule, which will allow El Cajon Valley to play fewer games, with all six school now able to play additional opponents to improve their CIF power index.

Well, it’s true but not true, according to Grossmont District athletics coordinator Donnie Carroll, the former vice-principal at Grossmont High who once was an all-East County performer at Granite Hills.

Carroll reports that that GVL coaches agreed to play three rounds, but only the second two would count in the standings — meaning 10 contests per school.

In addition any school — not just ECVHS — could opt out of the first round and face non-district opponents.

That’s quite a bit different from what we were originally told. However, the result is basically the same, aiding the process to gain a higher seeds in the CIF-San Diego Section playoffs — for both the top programs and the ones tring to get ahead.

So if you’re Valhalla or Monte Vista, you are no longer tied for first place. And if you’re Mount Miguel, you get a mulligan from an 0-2 start.

Despite the planning, of course, every ballgame was rained out on Tuesday, except one: of course, Mount Miguel.

Maranatha Christian 24, Mout Miguel 3
4-S RANCH — In an opportunity which Mount Miguel coaches believed would be a perfect opportunity to infuse injured players back into the lineup, the Matadors were definitely gad this was a non-league contest.

Maranatha Christian scored 10 times inthe first iunning to mount a 10-2 lead, going on to easily erase Mount Miguel at the Eagles on-campus field, located on the west side of I-15 from Rancho Bernardo.

The early-week rain hit North County first, whcih allowed the region for time to dry first, while all games scheduled for the east County were called due to wet grounds

Plus, Maranatha Christian has a turf field (not grass), just like Francis Parker and Santa Fe Christian.

The 24 runs represents the third-most allowed by the Matadors this century. Above that was a 27 and a 25, both by Steele Canyon.

Before the onslaught, the Matadors took a quick 2-0 lead as both starting pitchers appartently would’ve both perferred rain-outs.

The Matadors accepted a apir of lead walks, a double-steal and a wild picth to score. The return of Eric Sandoval to all phases of baseball saw the senior double to center field for another run.

However, the half-half othe first also saw a pair of lead baserunners, on singles, followed by a 3-run homer by Lukas Dawson.

The inning would finish with 10 runs on seven hits, plus the one (and only) Matadors error on the cloudy afternoon.

Dawson, a junior third baseman, finished with two home runs on 5-for-8 hitting, driving in seven runs and scoring four times for Marantha Christian (4-10 overall). He also hit a leadoff homer in the third.

The other MMHS run came inthe fifth. David Keller and Johnathan Trader recorded consecutive one-out singles. Keller then stole third base, scoring when Steve Gulley pushed the ball up the middle for an RBI ground out.

Mount Miguel (4-8 overall).saw six different players register a hit.