The annual San Diego Lions tournament — 132 teams strong across nine divisions this year — was generally kind to East County teams in its annual Easter week showcase.
The defending San Diego Section Open Division champion Granite Hills Eagles posted a 4-0 showing in its four Open Division tournament games while the Grossmont Foothillers and Helix Highlanders both finished 2-2 in the Classic Division.
Overall, 13 of the 15 East County teams entered in the March 30 to April 2 tourney picked up at least one victory.
Santana (Premier Division), El Capitan (Premier Division), Christian (Premier Division), West Hills (Division 4A), Foothills Christian (Division 2A) and Mountain Empire (Division 2A) all finished 1-3 while Liberty Charter (Division1) finished 1-2.
El Cajon Valley (Division 1) finished 0-3 while Valhalla (Division 2A) finished 0-4.
Soaring Eagles
Granite Hills carried a 7-3 record into the top-flight Open Division and came out with an 11-3 record following successive wins over El Camino Real (9-0 on March 30), La Costa Canyon (7-6 on March 31), St. Augustine (6-3 on April 1) and Balboa Birmingham (6-4 on April 2).
Freshman Colton Windham made a splash with three hits, including a double and home run, to ac-count for five RBI in Granite Hills’ 9-0 win over the El Camino Real Royals in the tournament opener. Junior Weston Pace had two hits and two RBI while senior Anthony Miotti had two hits, including a double, and one RBI to help lift the Eagles.
Junior Eurijah Schutza also had one RBI while Miotti and senior Preston Hendry each scored two runs. Miotti, Hendry and freshman Jaden Macias each collected two hits in the game.
Junior Hoss Harper pitched six innings with 14 strikeouts and no hits.
Windham had two doubles and our RBI in the win over LCC while Vicars and Schutza each drove in one run in support. Windham, Vicars and Pace each logged two hits.
Freshman Jesse Macias and Vicars each pitched three innings while Windham pitched one scoreless frame. Macias allowed one hit and no runs in his stint on the mound.
Freshman Jesse Maddox and Schutza each collected two RBI in the win over the Saints while Miotti drove in one run. Schutza recorded the win by scattering six hits over 5.2 innings. Maddox pitched 1.1 innings of hitless baseball with two strikeouts.
Windham and Schutza, having a big day, each scored twice. Windham and Maddox each had two hits – both doubles by Maddox.
Ervin drove in three runs and Schutza had two RBI in the win over Birmingham as the Eagles rapped out 12 hits.
Through 14 games, Windham led the Eagles with a 0.551 hitting average with 18 RBI and two home runs while Schutza followed at 0.420 with 13 RBI and two home runs. Miotti was next up at 0.354 with nine RBI and one homer. Pace and senior Calvin Jones were both batting 0.333 while Maddox followed at 0.316 with 10 RBI and Ervin at 0.261 with nine RBI.
On the mound, Schutza was 4-0 with a 3.23 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 21.2 innings while Harper was 3-1 with a 1.18 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 29.2 innings. Vicars was 2-0 with a 3.42ERA and 10 strikeouts in 14.1 frames.
Climbing the mountain
Grossmont defeated McClatchy (12-9 on March 30) and South Hills (6-4 on March 31) while dropping contests to Poway (15-14 on April 10 and Paloma Valley (12-3 on April 2).
Senior Trey Crawford slugged two home runs with five RBI to lead Grossmont to a 12-9 win in its tournament opener over McClatchy while three other Foothillers hit home runs: one each by senior Max Tufugafale and juniors Nate McCance and Myles Cata.
Tufugafale finished the game with three RBI while junior Logan Struck and freshman Dominic Guerra each scored three runs.
Tufugafale collected our RBI on three hits in the win over South Hills while Crawford had two RBI and once each for juniors Nolan Basteyns and Tyler Holmes. Junior Logan Struck had three hits and scored two runs as did senior Jesse McCormick and freshman Dominic Guerra.
Junior Nate McCance recorded the win by pitching five innings with four hits and four strikeouts.
Junior Nathan Clark, Struck (triple) and junior Rudy Gomez (home run) each drove in two runs in the high-scoring game against Poway as the teams combined for 34 hits (21 by the Titans).
Grossmont head coach Andre Simpson said his team understandably experienced a downturn toward the end of the week.
“We had three three-hour games back-to-back-to-back,” Simpson said. “Our guys were tired at the point.”
Simpson said his team has been positively impacted by the pitching of McCormick, who had logged a 2-2 record with a 3.72 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 32 innings to start the season.
Clark was 2-0 with a 1.24 ERA in three appearances.
Guerra owned a 0.405 hitting average in 15 games while Tufugafale had a team-best 19 RBI to go with a 0.367 hitting average and team co-leading four home runs. Crawford had accumulated 14 RBI and four home runs with a 0.306 average at the plate while Struck (0.341) had 10 RBI and two triples. Holmes (0.393) had nine RBI and one home run.
The Foothillers (7-8) returned to regular season play with a tight 2-0 win at Bonita Vista on Monday after the Barons (11-5) went 4-0 to win their division in the Lions tourney.
McCormick tossed a complete game one-hitter (a bunt single) with three strikeouts and three walks. Junior Trevor Rhea and senior Drew Sasena scored runs.
“Any time we’ve got Jesse McCormick out there, we have a chance to beat anybody,” the Grossmont coach said.
Helix (7-7) topped Vista Grande (13-0 on March 30) and Murrieta Mesa (6-2 on March 31) to open tourney place and absorbed losses to Mission Hills (8-3 on April 1) and Mt. Carmel (7-3 last Friday) to close out play.
Sophomore Jace Sells lead Helix in its tourney opener with a home run and four RBI in the win over Vista Grande. Junior Angel Watkins had a double and three RBI while four Highlanders each knocked in one run: junior Maddox Richardson, sophomore Romero Briones and juniors Kie Smith and Jake Johnson.
Briones pitched a complete game one-hitter with nine strikeouts while issuing just one walk.
Watkins had two RBI in the win over Murrieta Mesa while sophomore Braydon Rehbein, junior Jaxon Gottlieb and Briones each drove in one run. Gottlieb hit a home run while junior Ben Williams had two hits. Senior Bryan Herman scored two runs.
Junior Elijah Martinez pitched five innings with three hits and three strikeouts to grab the win on the mound.
Watkins and Briones co-led the Scotties with identical 0.395 hitting averages through 13 games, each with 15 hits, 18 RBI and four home runs. Herman (0.375) and Williams (0.356) followed on the scoresheet with nine and six RBI, respectively. Herman had two home runs and Williams one round-tripper.
Johnson and Smith were contributors with 0.342 and 0.333 hitting averages, respectively, with six and seven RBI. Richardson (0.286), junior Owen Liddell (0.273) and Gottlieb (0.267) followed on the scoresheet.
Briones led the Helix pitching staff with a 2-1 record, 1.12 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 25 innings. Martinez was close behind with a 2-1 mark and 1.58 ERA.
Around the horn
•Junior Morgan Myers drove in four runs, senior Abel Lopez drove in three runs and junior Isaiah Hyche had two RBI in Steele Canyon’s 16-4 victory against El Capitan as the Cougars racked up 18 hits. Five Steele players each slammed doubles: one each by senior Andrew Bravo, senior Austin Hall, Myers, senior Johann Garcia and Hyche.
Junior Branden Hawkins had two RBI for the Vaqueros in the loss.
•El Capitan shaded Santana, 3-2, as senior Kasen Baker, junior Ryder Powers and senior Dustin Celeste each drove in one run in support of freshman pitcher Brett Engle, who scattered three hits over six innings with five strikeouts.
Senior Blake Lillard and junior Brennen Weed each logged one RBI for the Sultans while sophomore Tatum Morehouse had a double.
Senior Xander Bennett led Santana over Liberty, 7-2 with two hits and three RBI while sophomore Gregory Ryan logged two RBI and one each for freshman Landon Braaksma and Weed. Sophomore Israel Sanchez pitched 5.1 innings to pick up the win on the hill.
•Four players each collected two RBI in Mt Miguel’s 13-1 win over Alpine’s Liberty Charter: seniors Luis Luna-Ramirez and Mekhi Yancy, junior Diego Soto and sophomore Dimitrio Lujan. Freshman Jayden Sanchez scattered four hits in five innings with six strikeouts to record the run-rule victory as the Matadors out-hit the Lions 11-4.
•Junior Logan Hays and senior Isaac Anderson each drove in two runs in Liberty Charter’s
9-0 win over the Arleta Mustangs. Hays, freshman Fisher Chase and sophomore Austin Otero each scored two runs in the game for the Lions while Anderson had two hits.
Freshman John Gray picked up the win on the hill with four innings of one-hit ball with seven strikeouts.
•Senior Anthony Delgado had three RBI and sophomore Jesse Arnold had two RBI in Mountain Empire’s 7-4 win over Valhalla. Junior Cameron Leon scored three runs while Delgado had three hits. Arnold pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts.
