The San Diego Section baseball championships took place May 28-30 at San Diego State University and the University of San Diego. Three East County teams qualified for the finals: No. 1-seeded Christian and No. 3-seeded Helix Charter in the Division II bracket and No. 7-seeded Foothills Christian in Division IV.
Helix won its fourth CIF championship in school history by defeating Christian, 8-4, while Foothills Christian took a runner-up finish with a 6-4 setback to No. 5 Francis Parker.
Other teams in the region will be looking to match those accomplishments success next season.
Alpine’s Liberty Charter High School tied for second place in the Summit League standings and qualified for the Division V-AA section playoffs. The Lions (12-11) received the No. 3 seed among the 10 teams in the divisional tournament and advanced to the third round of double-elimination play.
Liberty Charter lost its opening game, 8-4, to sixth-seeded Tri-City Christian but defeated 10th-seeded Vincent Memorial, 11-4, in the second round to remain in the mix.
The win advanced the Lions to a rematch against Tri-City in the third round. The teams produced a slugfest on the diamond with 44 runs between them. TCC won the right to advance to the division semifinals with a 24-20 victory.
Second-seeded Calvin Christian (17-8) ultimately won the right to advance to the division championship game with a 14-9 win over Tri-City (16-5).
Top-seeded Borrego Springs (18-4) claimed the division title with a 7-1 win in the final round played May 28 at SDSU’s Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Liberty Charter was handcuffed on four hits and 13 strikeouts by TCC pitchers James Hickey and Preston Chang in the teams’ playoff opener. Freshman Joshua Fredricks accounted for the Lions’ lone RBI in the setback.
The Alpine squad had much more success with the bat in the second-round match-up against Vincent Memorial (9-8) with 12 hits, including two doubles and a triple. Senior Isaac Anderson led the offensive onslaught with three hits and four RBI.
Senior Jace Ballard had three hits and two RBI while Fredricks and sophomores Micah Burmeister and Asher Johnson each drove in one run.
Three Liberty pitchers shared mound duty — freshman John Gray went four innings with two hits allowed and six strikeouts while sophomores Jacob Jones and Burmeister each struck out three batters for a combined 12 K’s in the victory. The Lions collected four stolen bases in the playoff win.
Fredricks had three hits, including a double, and five RBI in the season-ending loss to TCC while junior Logan Hays and freshman Fisher Chase (double) each drove in three runs. Sophomores Aiden Otero and Austin Otero each collected a double and two RBI.
Chase and Austin Otero each scored four runs in the game.
The teams combined for 30 hits — 16 by the Lions. TCC scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to break a 20-all deadlock on the scoreboard.
Liberty Charter tied with the Chula Vista Learning Community Charter Cobras (12-7-1) for the runner-up slot in the league standings — both teams with 5-3 records.
Top performers during the 2026 season included Anderson with a 0.435 hitting average, 29 RBI and 11 doubles, Austin Otero with a 0.382 hitting average 18 RBI and three triples, Hays with a 0.349 hitting average and 23 RBI, Fredricks with a 0.349 hitting average, 23 RBI and three triples and Chase with a 0.343 hitting average and 19 RBI.
Hays led the Lions with 29 stolen bases while Austin Otero followed with 28 steals and Chase with 21 steals.
Gray keyed the pitching staff with a 6-6 record in 15 appearances with 44 strikeouts in 44.2 innings. Jones posted a 2-5 record in 14 appearances with 38 strikeouts in 28.7 innings.
Looking toward the future, freshmen Travis Kraling recorded 35 strikeouts in 16.2 innings while Zachary Runge collected 25 strikeouts in 13.9 innings. Burmeister logged 21 strikeouts in 14.5 innings.
Mountain Empire (15-7) finished on top of the Summit League standings with an 8-0 league record. The RedHawks competed in the Division IV playoffs as the No. 2 seed with losses to No. 7 Foothills Christian (4-3 in the first round) and No. 11 Mar Vista (10-2 in the second round).
Senior Anthony Delgado led the team with a prodigious 0.533 hitting average with 30 RBI. Juniors Cameron Leon (0.483) and Ezekiel Lopez 0.447) followed with 21 and 22 RBI, respectively.
Junior Jacob Arnold (0.409) paced the team with 41 RBI while senior Michael Noble (0.415) collected 23 RBI. Leon swiped 36 bases on the season.
Freshman Gabriel Garcia recorded a 4-1 pitching mark with a 2.95 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 38 innings while Arnold complied a 5-3 mark with a 4.37 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 33.2 innings.
Arnold and junior Javier Lopez both doubled and picked up RBI in the loss to Foothills Christian while senior Isaac Gonzalez also drove in one run.
Foothills Christian advanced to the championship game against Francis Parker.
