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. Bracket winners advanced directly to division championship games while all other teams will receive a consolation game.
Add inclement weather to this year’s event, which faced off March 31 and was scheduled to end 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-schedule game. Champions were 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 entered the week atop the San Diego Section rankings with a 6-0-1 record. The 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.
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), Lewis with a 2-0 record, 1.17 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 24 innings), Butters (1-0, 0.95 ERA, four strikeouts in 7l1 innings) and Russell (1-0, 9.00 ERA, seven strikeouts in 8.1 innings).
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 xx.
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.
