Collegiate baseball doesn’t end with the College World Series in June. It’s only a starting point for the next season.
Summer leagues across the country — most notably in Alaska and Cape Cod — have long been popular destinations for offseason competition among college-age ball players who are trying to get a leg up on the competition.
San Diego can now boast a robust training league of its own.
The San Diego League wrapped up its second season with championship playoffs Aug. 6 at Christian High School in El Cajon as the Hooks defeated the Brewers, 10-6, for the 2020 title.
The championship game concluded a whirlwind schedule that saw the eight-team summer circuit log 89 games in a 52-day period.
The 2020 season boasted a significant increase in membership from the four teams in its inaugural 2019 season.
Yet, it was a season like no other.
The San Diego League mixed baseball with social distancing, hand sanitizers in the dugouts and daily temperature-taking amid the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
In a summer in which youth baseball teams were limited to sports day camp practices, collegians were able to step on the diamond, throw fastballs, hit home runs, make diving catches and chug around the basepaths.
“We had our own terminology—we created a bubble of normalcy,” San Diego League vice president Mark Rogoff told the Baseball America publication.
The league did not escape unscathed, however, as seven players and one assistant coach tested positive for the COVID-19 virus (all described as asymptomatic) in the final three weeks of the season.
The positive tests took teams temporarily off the field and players out of the lineup. But the league regrouped and finished the season despite the adversity, with six teams participating in the championship playoffs.
Batter up
The focus of the San Diego League, according to its website, is on “improving athletically, overall development and comprehending and applying the analytics.”
The league has attracted attention for its player tracking technology, especially swing-motion to maximize efficiency at bat and pitching that measures the impact of the spin of every ball to calculate its trajectory.
In a world that is being driven by changing technology, more information is always better.
Because some collegiate leagues were unable to operate this summer, it kept many players local and brought others in, which proved to the benefit of the San Diego League.
East County players in the championship game included newly minted Helix Charter graduate Jordan Thompson (Louisiana State University) and Grossmont High alum Scott Wood (San Diego City College) on the team champion Hooks and Helix’s Justin Cervantes (San Diego City College) on the runner-up Brewers.
Alpine’s Trevor Omahen (High Point University) joined fellow Granite Hills grad Clay Fordham (Grossmont College) on the Waveriders roster this summer.
Omahen played three seasons at Granite Hills before graduating in 2017. He appeared in 30 varsity games for the Eagles as a senior, hitting .282 with five doubles and eight RBI. He recorded a 2.33 earned-run average in three pitching appearances.
Omahen ventured to Palomar College after leaving high school, earning second team all-conference honors for the Comets while hitting .313 in 36 games with 29 RBI and 34 runs scored.
A Millis Scholar-Athlete, he appeared in seven games for High Point University during the shortened 2020 season after enrolling at the North Carolina school. He logged a .294 hitting average and was one of five HPU players to hit a home run.
Omahen’s older brother Johnny, also a Granite Hills product, played professionally in the minor leagues from 2011-16 in the Florida Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations. He compiled a career 34-27 win-loss record on the mound with a 4.20 ERA and 342 strikeouts in 139 games.
The younger Omahen appeared in 17 games for the Waveriders this summer with three RBI to his credit.
Fordham, who logged 34 varsity games for the Eagles from 2018-20, appeared in eight games for the Waveriders with 19 strikeouts in 18.2 innings on the hill.
Omahen and Fordham were among several Granite Hills alums sprinkled on the San Diego League’s summer rosters. Michael King (San Diego City College) suited up for the Long Boarders while T.K. Parker (Long Beach State) soared on the Jets.
Long Beach State after playing for the Jets this summer in the San Diego League.
Parker, an incoming college freshman, appeared in 14 games for the Jets with seven runs scored and four RBI while King pitched in nine games for the Long Boarders.
The Waveriders eliminated the Long Boarders, 12-5, in the opening round of the playoffs while the Hooks stopped the Waveriders, 7-2, in the semifinals. The Brewers ended the Warriors’ playoff run with a 7-6 cliffhanger victory in the semifinals after the Warriors had defeated the Wild, 9-3, in the first round. The Hooks and Brewers received first-round playoff byes. The Jets and Sharks did not qualify for the playoffs.
