Knights fricassee Firebirds in romp

By Nick Pellegrino
Updated: April 20, 2023

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2023 EAST COUNTY PREP BASEBALL

ECS staff report

CARLSBAD – The Pacific League leading Foothills Christian Knights faced few obstacles while heading to North County.

The Knights found freeway traffic to be relatively light and the Pacific Ridge pitching to be thin in white sauce, allowing the Foothills Christian chefs to fry the Firebirds, 16-4, in Wednesday’s (Apr. 19) league contest?

The decision begs the question: shouldn’t a fish friy be held on Fridays?

No matter, after Foothills Christian tallied five times in the first inning, then added a season-high eight runs in the fourth to mount a 15-2 cushion, with the ballclub’s seniors leading the way.

Zach Ortiz registered four RBI, featuring a 3-run double, while Earz Aest drove in three runs on three hits, also including a run-scoring doublr.

The highest runtotal for the Knights this season was enough for West to breeze to the pitching victory. More impreessive, freshman Jack Morgan (Fr) yielded just one earned run in three innings to garner his first varsity-level save.

Foothills Christian (7-11 overall, 3-0 league), winners of five straight, comeplete the home-and-home series on Friday again Pacific Ridge (6-6, 1-1 league). It’s the firt league setback for the Firebirds, which now standing one-gameback in the loss column to both te Knights and Escondido Charter (2-0).

St. Augustine 10, Santana 3

SANTEE – Ballclubs from three of the top five baseball leagues in the CIF San Diego Section all agreed to fill their confidential bye date and play a mini round-robin “tournament” with each other.

Santana took Tuesday;s opener against Westview with a chance to win the “title” but better, gain more computer index points which can greatly effect the seeding for the postseason.

Instead, St. Augustine moved into position to take the round-robin by defeating the Sultans, 10-3,now moving on to meet Westview in Thursday’s final round.

An extremely consistent Saints batting order kept inflicting damahe throughout the contest, mounting a 6-0 lead before Santana tallied single runs in innnins 4-to-6.

Senior M.J. Sweeney and sophomore Grayson Boles both posted a pair of RBI, two of seven players to knock in runs., while sophomore Anthony Thompkins utilized many “Diff’rent Strokes” to slug a solo home run.

Saints pitcher Calvin Shaw ran his record to 4-1 with his third win in his last three starts. Shaw lasted 5.1 innings, yielding just three hits and three runs (one earned).

Austin Foley registed two of Santana’s five hits.The lone Sultans RBI came on a Luke Nash sacrifice fly in the sixth, scoring Alex Giles.

St. Augustine moved to 13-3 overall by winning for the ninth time in 11 outings.

Santana (10-6), the leaders of the Grossmont Hills League, returns to action Friday to start a home-and-road series with surprising Grossmont, which stands second in the GHL.

Borrego Springs 18, West Shores 0 (3 inn.)

SALTON CITY – The City of El Cajon has its “Battle of Madison Street” and the “Battle of Jamacha.” Santee has a “Battle of Mast Boulevard.”

Well, the back country possess the “Battle of Palm Canyon Drive,” when taken east from Borrego Springs takes one directly to Salton City of Imperial County.

In a game called after a mere three innings because, well, what was the point in continuing, the Borego Springs Rams waltzed to an 18-0 conquest of the host West Shores Wildcats in Wednesday’s (Apr. 19) Manzanita League affair.

Wes Sexton and Jonathan Garcia each slugged bases-loaded triples, while A.B. Arambula added a two-run triple.

The Rams scored five times in each of the first two innings to invoke the run rule — except there is no run rule in CIFSDS baseball. Still, section officials have told coaches to play/not play with common sense — i.e., good sportsmanship — or feel the wrath of the “Torreys Rue.”

In the later 1970s, a softball coach, in an era when there was no mercy rule and games were played to full conclusions, ran up the score to a then state-record 72-0, insisting on playing the final three or four innings despite the objections of the umpire — there was no such thing as calling a game early back then.

Ultimately, that coach was fired the next day and he never coached another high schools softball game again at any school.

So wen West Shores said enough was enough, everyone agreed after the Rams added eight additional runs in the third inning.

Technically, Borrego Springs freshman pitcher Chris Alcaraz was credited with a three-inning no-hitter, although he walked six Wildcats batters in the three frames.

Borrego Springs moved to 6-5 overall (1-1 league). West Shores went to 1-3 (1-1 league).