Eagles, Scotties go undefeated in annual San Diego Lions baseball tournament

The San Diego Downtown Li­ons High School Baseball Tour­nament, founded in 1951, ranks as the oldest and largest of its kind in the United States.

The tournament has morphed in recent years because of CIF rule changes, transforming it­self to a four-game event for participating teams. Bracket winners advance directly to division championship games while all other teams receive a consolation game.

Add inclement weather to this year’s event, which was sched­uled March 31 to April 3.

About half the games on the opening day of the tournament were rained out. Rescheduled games were slated for last Fri­day (April 4) and Monday (April 7), stretching the bounds of play for out-of-town teams.

As an experiment this year, championship games were scheduled in the Open Division, Classic Division and Premier Division. All other divisions received a fourth previously scheduled game, with champi­ons to be determined by team records and tiebreakers.

Many games on April 3 took place in the morning to accom­modate schedule changes.

The Granite Hills Eagles played three games in the Lions tournament — a 4-4 tie against San Marcos on April 1, 7-2 over Patrick Henry on April 2 and 11-1 over Torrey Pines on April 3 — to improve to 8-0-2 on the season and maintain their No. 1 ranking among San Diego Sec­tion teams.

Senior Jody Macias recorded two RBI in the game against San Marcos while sophomore Westin Pace and senior Trevor Smith each drove in one run. Senior Brenden Lewis pitched four innings with five strike­outs.

Senior Parker Vance collected two RBI in the win over Patrick Henry while sophomore Brody Vicars, Smith, sophomore Euri­jah Schutza and senior Phillip Jones each had one RBI. Vance had two hits, including a dou­ble, and scored two runs.

Senior Luke Bailey pitched 6.2 innings with seven strike­outs.

Granite Hills and Patrick Henry had previously played to a 5-5 tie on March 26.

Three players each drove in two runs in the win over Tor­rey Pines: Lewis (home run), junior Jake Ervin and Vicars. Smith, Schutza and junior An­thony Miotti each scored twice. The Eagles used three pitchers on the mound: junior Scott Rus­sell (three hits, no earned runs in three innings), senior Josh Butters (two hits, one earned run in two innings) and senior Jacob Kruse (three strikeouts, no earned runs in one inning).

Through 10 games, Lewis paced Granite Hills with a 0.429 hitting average, 11 RBI and three home runs, followed on the scoresheet by senior Tommy Entrekin (0.333 hitting average, eight RBI), Miotti (0.320, six RBI), Vance (0.290, eight RBI, one home run), Smith (0.273, three RBI), Schutza (0.250, two RBI) and Vicars (0.250, four RBI).

Pitching leaders included Bailey with a 4-0 record, 1.59 earned-run average and 23 strikeouts in 22 innings and Lewis with a 2-0 record, 1.17 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 24 in­nings. Butters (1-0, 0.95 ERA, four strikeouts in 7.1 innings) and Russell (1-0, 9.00 ERA, seven strikeouts in 8.1 innings) were also unbeaten on the mound.

A total of 15 East County teams participated in this year’s tournament.

Helix Charter managed to get in all four scheduled games, sweeping the quartet of contests — 6-1 over Classical Academy, 10-3 over Bonita Vista, 11-1 over Maranatha Christian and 2-0 over University City — to improve its season record to 7-6.

Sophomore Ben Williams knocked in a pair of runs in the win over Classical Academy with two hits, including a home run, while senior Antoin Simp­son struck out four batters in two innings.

Sophomore Maddox Richard­son collected two RBI in the win over Bonita Vista while senior Sean Sherrod and junior Ace Nguyen combined for a four-hitter.

Simpson drove in five runs on four hits, including two home runs, and scored three times in the blowout victory against Ma­ranatha Christian. Freshman Rory Kleiner had two RBI and scored twice as did sophomore Jake Johnson.

Williams and senior Matt Martinez spun a six-hitter with five combined strikeouts against one walk.

Johnson had two hits and one RBI in the shutout win over University City while freshman Romero Briones struck out six batters and allowed three hits in six innings to pick up the win.

Simpson leads the Highland­ers with a 0.349 hitting aver­age with 11 RBI and three home runs while Sherrod has logged a 3-2 record to go with a 2.62 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 24 innings.

Simpson has struck out 18 batters in 16 innings to go with a 2.62 ERA.

Christian finished 3-1 with wins over Lone Peak (6-4), Green Valley (6-0), West Hills (9-0) and a 5-1 loss to Westview to extend its early season record to 10-3.

Sophomore Braeden Casey and junior Benji Molina each drove in two runs in the win over Lone Peak while sopho­more Landan Rook struck out three batters in six innings on the hill.

Freshmen Walker Kane and Maximum Villalva each had two RBI in the win over Green Val­ley while senior Logan Major recorded a three-hit complete game shutout with five strike­outs.

Molina is hitting 0.415 in 52 plate appearances with 13 RBI, six doubles, one triple and one home run while junior Chase Togerson is hitting 0.382 with 12 RBI.

Major is 4-0 with a 2.47 ERA in six appearances with 24 strikeouts in 31 innings.

Grossmont (7-6) finished 2-1 with wins over Rancho Bernar­do (5-3) and Point Loma (5-2) and a 9-0 loss to Eastlake.

Junior Max Tufugafale drove in three runs in the win over RB while senor Jacob Holman fanned four batters while allow­ing three hits in six innings to record the pitching victory.

Senior Durante Martinez had three RBI with a double while senior Marviel Underwood sand junior Hunter Weller combined on a four-hitter with six strike­outs.

Sophomore Logan Struck tops the Foothillers with a 0.357 hit­ting average while Martinez (0.292 hitting average), Tufu­gafale, senior Chris Jacques and sophomore Nate McCance are tied for the team lead with seven RBI.