Sacrifice fly lifts Helix over Bonita

By Nick Pellegrino
Updated: May 15, 2024

2024 EAST COUNTY PREP BASEBALL
CIF-San Diego Section Championships

ECS staff report

Division 2

Helix 3, Bonita Vista 2

BONITA – A type of hit that is slowly disappearing from high school baseball was the difference for the Helix Highlanders to upsey third-seeded Bonita Vista as the double-elimination phase f the CIFSDS Division 2 championship opened Wednesday (May 16).

The Highlanders’ Kris Jones drilled the ball to right field,but surprising many on not simply stopping at second base and wound up with a triple with one down in the seventh inning.

Walker Laub followed with a tie-breaking, sacrifice fly to center field — coming with two strikes — lifting Helix into the winner’s bracket semifinals.

Winning pitcher Lincoln Wirschem then re-took the mound to finish his complete-game effort, He did surrender a basehit with two down, then wrapped-up his four-hitter.

Wischem struck out six Barons batters, plus save the Helix bullpen should the Scotties need to play two more games this week.

HHelix (14-14), seeded No. 6, can avoid an extra game should it win Friday’s winners bracket final against Santa Fe Christian in Solana Beach. The Eagles (formerly the Navigators) stopped Madison, 7-3.

Bonita Vista scored in the first, but Helix countered with single markrs in the third and fourth, including an RBI singe by Adrian Espinoza.

The Barons scratched back in the sixth on a two-out, ground double to left field by J.D. Corcoran, setting up the dramatic finish.

For Helix, Jones finished with a pair of extra-base hits (double, triple), scoring both times. Gehrig Syms scored the additional run.

Division 1

Poway 6. Santana 1

POWAY – The Poway Titans needed less than 20 minutes to put away visiting Santana in the start of the double-elimination portion of the CIFSDS Division 1 championship.

Titans senior Trevor Tse struck with an early 2-run single, leading the way to a 4-0 advantage through the first inning in an eventual 6-1 triumph.

Poway starting pitcher Avery Anderson dominated for six frames, yielding just a run on five hits while striking out nine Sultans batters. Landon Nigro, the mop-up man, pitched the seventh.

Poway (20-9 overall), which has posted three consecutive losing season, reaches the 20-win plateau for the first time sine 2019, when they ended a streak of dice straight 20-win campaigns.

The second-seeded Titans advance to the winner’s bracket semifinals against No. 11 Montgomery, which posted its second consecutive upset by dumping No. 3 Del Norte, 4-1.

Santana (8-20), the reigning CIFSDS Division I champions, drop to the challengers bracket and needs five straight win to repeat. The tough trek begins Friday at Del Norte.

With the loss,Santana suffered a 20-loss season for only the second time since at least 1978 — quite an impreesive record of consistent winning.

Division 4

Monte Vista 12, Palo Verde Valley 1

SPRING VALLEY – When the 2024 National Football League schedule was announced Wednesday (May 15), it was determined that the Los Angeles Chargers will travel more miles than any other team.

When it comes to San Diego Section baseball, the annual road warriors are always the Palo Verde Valley Yellow Jackets.

located in Blythe, Calif., along the shore of the Colorado River, the high schools is located almost exactly midway between San Diego and Primm, New, (the town on the state line)

In the team’s second stop “ou west” in lss than 24 hours, Palo Verde Valley first defeated host Hilltop, but now exhausted, easily fell to second-seeded Monte Vista, 13-1, in CIFSDS Division 4 action.

This contest was unlike last season’s [pstseam meeting, when Monte Vista took a narrow 4-3 victory.

It was also the Monarchs’ largest margin of victory in a postseason cintestrs since 1978, when Tamona surrended after six innings in a 12-1 wipeout.

Beofre that, it was 1995 when Monte Vista blanked Montgomery, 10-0, when (NAME) Bolden fired a no-hitter.

In this go-around with the Yellow Jakets, Monte Vista scored five times in the second and fourth innings by utilizing a 15-hit attack.

Justyn Stone knocked in three runs fr the Monarchs, while Gavin Daley had two RBI on three hits and scored three times.

Four other Monte Vista plyares — David Rodriguez, acob Schweizer, David Aceron and Damian Ordaz — also posted two hits.

Ordaz alo combined with Reuben Cabugwas and Orlando Rupley to convert a double play.

On the mound, David Rodriguez struck out 12 Yellow Jackets over his six innings. The dozenwhiffs eualld his career high of 12, set against San Diegfo in 2023.

Monte Vista (19-9-1) , the No. 2 seed, hosts Friday’s winners bracket semifinals against the victor of the lste game bedtween Imperial and Escondido Charter.

Division 5

Mount Miguel 4, ECVHS 3

SPRING VALLEY – The Mount Miguel Matadors said all of the correct things following a two-game sweep of El Cajon Valley to cpmplete the regular season.

The Matadors just knew the Braves would be back.

Sure enough, in a close ballgames, ECVHS had four chances to pull even down the stretch, However, Mount Miguel held on for a 4-3 victory in the CIFSGS Division 5 lower bracket ballgame.

The Braves moved to within 2-1, 3-2 and finally 4-3, but the elusive extra wun to forcer extra innings never arrived.

The early catalyst for the Matadors was Alfredo Rodriguez,who drilled a pair of doubles, one for an RBI. Also collected two hits was Matt Barton.

Meanwhile, also driving home runs for Mount Miguel were Xavier Reyes, Junior Ettleman and Tyler Kelly.

Many of the comebacks for ECVHS came via errors, although Benjamin Diaz did drive in a run.

However, Rodriguez and Kelly, the Matadors’ pitchers combined for 11 strike outs to close the door. Kelly went the first 4.2 frames to gain the win; Rodriguex garnered the save.

Mount Miguel (12-16 overall), which has its most victories since 2019(14), will host SD-High Tech on Friday in a 3-vs-2 pairings.

ECVHS (10-16) heads to south Escondido in a win-or-go-home game with Orange Glen. The Braves own a winning record of 10-8 against fellow D-5 programs this season.

The Braves have already equaled their most wins since 2016. An additional would set a new school record in the 21st Century, tying the mark last set in 1996 and 1997,

Division 5-AA

Borrego Springs 15, CV-Victory Christain 7

BORREGO SPRINGS – The Manzanita League champion Borrego Springs Rams
mounted a 7-0 lead, going on to a 15-7 knockout triumph over Victory Christian in the opneing round pf the CIFDDS Division 5-AA tournament.

After grabning the early lead, the Knights responded with fur runs in the fifth inning, but the Rams immediately answered with five runs inthe fifth for the win.

The postseason triumph for the Rams was the schools first since 2016, when then captured an elimination game fromEl Cajon Valey, 14-5.Once again, another big fifth inning — 8 runs — spelled the difference.

For the Knights, Tristen Pflueger batted 4-for-4, including an RBI single.

Borrego Springs (15-7) seek a second postseason win in a single season since 2016 (both vs.Hoover) when they meet Calvin Christian in Escondido on Friday.

Calvin Christian 14, Libety Charter 2

ESCONDIDO – The Liberty Charter Lions briefly held a biref 1-0 lead, otherwise it was all Crusaders in a 14-2 decision for top-seeded Calvin Christian.

For the Lions (15-7 overall), Andruw Godinez drove in the early run.

Socring runs were sophomore Ernest Sanders and freshman Logan Hays.

Brody Harris also added a double for “las liChas” (LI-berty CHA-rter), which hope to avoid elimination at Victory Christian in Chula Vista on Friday.