EAGLES IN NEED OF DE-ICING WINGS

By David Dickens
Updated: February 24, 2019

2019 EAST COUNTY PREP BASEBALL

BONITA VISTA 4, GRANITE HILLS 0

By Dave Dickens

EastCountySports.com

CHULA VISTA (2-23-2019) – The rain and ice, while helping our poor east county desert out of a drought, is not so baseball friendly.

“Rain has definitely hurt us but it has wreaked havoc on all teams,” said Granite Hills Eagles head coach James Davis.

The Bonita Vista Barons struck quickly and swiftly as the Barons scored one run on a Bubba Villegas ground out, with two on and two out, making it 1-0 Bonita Vista with Eagles sophomore pitcher AUSTIN SMITH on the mound.

Smith was impressive in spite of the loss, as he pitched three strong innings, issuing only two free passes, one run, one hit in the first inning, with one strikeout, and no earned runs to boot.

“This kid Austin will be something special one day,” Davis said.

“I love the pressure that Coach Davis is gonna put on me,” Smith said. “I think that my style and different pitch locations were effective. The huge part of it was that I can change up the speed, hitting my spots at the same time.

“I’m able to throw inside and outside for strikes, even jamming the
hitters inside this afternoon.”

Granite’s SEAN McGREW, MAX BODTKE, and NOA PONCIANO would have the only hits of the contest for the Eagles.

What was also hard on the struggling Eagle offense were the hard-hit balls that were always hauled in by an impressive Bonita Vista defense.

The Barons didn’t commit a single error on the afternoon.

“We definitely haven’t had the time to fully prepare but we are coming together as a team,” Smith said. “The rain has been most definitely a struggle, my last bullpen was in the hail.”

The Eagles (0-2) will travel up to Cathedral Catholic (0-0), which is never an easy task.

This is also part of the Hilltop Tournament resuming for Granite on Tuesday the 26th at 3 p.m.

EastCountySports.com