Rainy Knights top Matadors in bullpen battle; Monarchs win

By Ramon Scott
Updated: March 10, 2018

Foothills Christian's JAKE BAPTISTA takes a cut on Saturday against Mount Miguel.

2018 EAST COUNTY PREP BASEBALL

EastCountySports.com staff report

EL CAJON – While a couple of matchups on the prep diamond didn’t get underway early enough to escape the rainstorm, a couple of games went off under threatening skies early on Saturday and played to a conclusion…

FOOTHILLS CHRISTIAN 5, MOUNT MIGUEL 4 – The Knights won their second-straight in the Bully’s Tournament by scoring all their runs in the first two innings.

Foothills Christian leads off against Mount Miguel on Saturday.

The evenly-match clubs played an intriguing game at Barona Diamond in a steady rain on Saturday.

The freshman-heavy Knights got on the board in the first inning on an RBI single from freshman KIP FAMOLARO.

Famolaro scored on wild pitches in both the first and second innings. He went two innings on the mound, as well.

Freshman JAKE BAPTISTA, who had a huge sac bunt in the game, got the last five outs of the game for the save.

Junior JALANI BROWN and sophomore CORBIN HARRIS both had two hits for FCHS. Brown scored twice.

Harris had an infield single to cap Foothills’ three-run first.

Brown tripled and scored on a wild pitch to the FCHS a 4-1 lead in the last of the third.

“We do not win this game without the work of our catcher JACK WURTS,” said Foothills Christian manager DAVE LEWIS. “On a sloppy wet field, he blocked ball after ball and threw out a runner.

“A great, clutch performance by our catcher against a tough Mount Miguel team.”

The ball gets away in the wet conditions on Saturday at Barona Diamond.

The Matadors aren’t exactly a veteran-laden club, either.

Freshman JOJO CASTILLO hit a line single to center to bring the Matadors to within 3-1 in the second.

Matador sophomore ERIK KELLY singled home a run in the top of the third with a line shot to center to bring the score to within 5-2. He later scored on a passed ball.

Mount Miguel sophomore JULIUS HARRIS hit a pop single to right to make the score 5-4 in the top of the third as the game appeared headed for a wild offensive affair.

Senior JOSEPH MENDOZA scored twice for the Matadors.

The Matadors did manage to steal seven bases in the treacherous conditions, but several were just due to the impossible predicament for the backstop.

“Managing the ball got harder as the game went on for both teams,” Wurts said. “Pitchers on both teams did a great job throwing in those conditions.

“My job was to keep the ball in front so my pitchers could be confident to throw whatever pitch we needed for a strike.”

An interesting play in the game came in the top of the 4th with MMHS down by 1 and runners on 1st and 2nd.

Matador ANGELO ZERTUCHE singled through the right side for an apparent game-tying run, but unluckily for Mount Miguel, a balk was called during the delivery.

Mount Miguel junior RHP NICO CAMACHO pitched 4 innings of relief, allowing no runs on two hits, along with 10 strikeouts.

MMHS stranded 12 runners.

“Amazing performance (by Camacho),” Mount Miguel head coach FRANK COIT said. “The balk was a killer, but we had many, many chances to tie or win the game.”

Foothills Christian senior TREVOR SMALLWOOD struck out seven in 3 1/3 innings.

“We battled through it,” Wurts added. “Mount Miguel did a great job. They fought the whole way and made it tough. It was a fun game.”

MONTE VISTA 10, SOUTHWEST (SD) 6 – The Monarchs scored four in the second and four in the fourth for enough to outlast the Raiders from the South Bay.

Southwest jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one frame.

Monte Vista led 10-3 heading into the last of the seventh.

Monte Vista scored on a 2-0 single by ERNIE ARAMBULA, a walk by ISAAC GONZALEZ, a sacrifice fly by JON GULLEY, and a 1-2 single by ZACH MANUEL in the second inning.

Gulley, IVAN PLAZOLA and ANDY CANEDO each had RBI in the big fourth-inning outburst.

Manuel was the winning pitcher, as he went 2 1/3 innings, allowing one run on no hits and striking out four.

Plazola, Arambula, ANDREW SAVOR and RAMON VARELA all secured outs out of the ‘pen for the Monarchs.

Plazola went three shutout innings.

Gulley went 2-for-3 at the plate, as Monte Vista improved to 2-1 with its second-straight win.