Ten teams participated in this year’s Hilltop-Lolita’s baseball tournament. Hilltop and Bonita Vista represented the Metro Conference while Granite Hills and Santana represented the Grossmont Conference. Poway, Rancho Buena Vista, La Costa Canyon, Classical Academy, Del Norte and Cathedral Catholic rounded out this year’s field from the North County.
Hilltop coach Kurt Gritts said the tournament ranks as one of the section’s annual top early season events.
“We have quality teams who are playing,” Gritts said. “We find out who the top teams are and how much better we need to get early on.”
Granite Hills won last year’s Division I section championship before going on to capture the Southern California Division III regional championship title. The Eagles, who defeated Point Loma, 3-2, in the section final, finished a season of plenty 28-10 overall, 11- 4 in Grossmont Hills League play.
Santana concluded a highly productive season of its own last spring with a 21-6 overall record, including 9-0 in Grossmont Valley League play. The Sultans advanced to three playoff rounds in the Open Division, earning the No. 7 seed while promptly defeating second-seeded Rancho Bernardo by a score of 5-3. Santana was doubled up, 4-2, in the next round by thirdseeded Grossmont and exited the playoffs following a 2-1 setback to sixth-seeded La Costa Canyon in the double-elimination format.
Both East County teams qualified for this year’s Hilltop-Lolita’s tournament championship game on March 5 that was ultimately rained out. Both Granite Hills skipper James Davis and Santana head coach Rigoberto Ledezma elected not to reschedule the tournament final as their respective teams are already scheduled to play three times in Grossmont Hills League play this season.
“Yeah, we are not making that game up,” Davis said.
Flying high
The Eagles started the season 3-1 following wins over LCC (6-5 on Feb. 24), Poway (6-1 on Feb. 26) and Classical Academy (26-4 on Feb. 28) and a 16-12 loss in eight innings to Bonita Vista on March 1 to qualify for the tournament championship game. Granite Hills, led by senior Hudson Beamon’s five RBI and freshman Parker Vance’s four RBI, rapped out 17 hits in the lopsided win over Classical Academy.
Two other Eagles collected three RBI in the game: junior Camden Sos and senior Grant MacArthur. The Eagles tacked on three more wins to improve their season start to 6-1. Granite Hills defeated Madison (8-3 on March 7) and Eastlake (10-6 on March 9) to start the annual GMC tournament and topped Cathedral Catholic, 8-1, in a non-league game on March 11.
A 5-3 loss at Scripps Ranch on Monday put an end to the Eagles’ three-game winning streak. Spencer Davis and Ethan McNish-Heider both drove in two runs in the win over Madison while sophomore Chandler Henry, the team’s top returning hurler, pitched 4.1 innings to pick up the win.
Sos and McNish-Heider both had two RBI in the win over Eastlake while junior Nico Tomasello pitched 2.1 innings to earn the victory on the mound. Davis had three RBI and junior Jacob Embleton drove in two runs in the win over Cathedral Catholic.
Early season statistical leaders for the Eagles include MacArthur with a monstrous 0.625 hitting average with 13 runs scored, four doubles, four home runs and 12 RBI and Beamon with a 0.381 hitting average, two doubles, seven RBI and six runs scored. Beamon had the game-winning walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning in last year’s
Division I final.
The younger Davis was batting 0.360 with two doubles, nine RBI and six runs scored while freshman Brandon Lewis and Sos both had logged identical 0.355 hitting averages, both with five RBI. Senior Tanner Vielguth (0.55 ERA) and Henry (2.42 ERA) were both 2-0 on the hill. McNishHeider led the team with 12 strikeouts in 12.1 innings while Lewis had 10 strikeouts in 9.1 innings of work.
Top returners include MacArthur, senior catcher Cody Macias, Sos, Spencer Davis and Henry while top newcomers include Lewis, Vance and freshman Tommy Entrekin.
“Hopefully we will be able to hit this year,” the elder Davis said. “We lost a lot of key innings. Hopefully our young pitchers can show up.”
The Granite Hills coach predicts a close race for this year’s league title with Santana now in the mix along with Helix, Grossmont and Steele Canyon.
“But it will be very close — anyone can win our league,” Davis said.
Purple Nation
The Sultans, who are off to a 6-2 start this season, defeated Del Norte (1-0 on Feb. 25), RBV (13-1
on Feb. 26), Cathedral Catholic (3-1 on March 1) and Hilltop (7-1 on March 2) to reach the tournament championship game.
Senior Caleb Harris drove in three runs in the March 2 game against Hilltop while seniors Elijah Reber and Ethan Wright both scored two runs.
Senior Tyler Begg and Wright both plated three runs in the 17- hit win over RBV while four pitchers combined on a four-hitter.
Wright had cobbled together a 0.389 hitting average in 27 plate appearances with three doubles, six RBI and five runs scored. Junior Jayden Agramont followed on the scoresheet with a 0.375 hitting average, three doubles, two RBI and four runs scored in 20 plate appearances.
Reber had collected a 0.364 hitting average with one double, two RBI and six runs scored in 27 plate appearances.
Senior Koda Alto owned a 2-0 pitching record in three appearances with a 1.56 earned-run average with eight strikeouts in 18 innings.
Harris led the team with 11 strikeouts in 13 innings
SAN DIEGO SECTION BASEBALL RANKINGS
MaxPreps through March 15
1. Rancho Bernardo (5-1)
2. Escondido Charter (4-0)
3. St. Augustine (6-0-1)
4. Mission Hills (5-1)
5. Granite Hills (6-2)
6. Escondido (6-0-1)
7. Santana (7-2)
8. La Costa Canyon (5-1)
9. Carlsbad (4-1)
10. Del Norte (4-2)
11.San Marcos (4-1-1)
12. Christian (6-2)
13. Mountain Empire (3-1)
14. Canyon Crest Academy (4-1)
15. Poway (4-2)
16. Eastlake (5-3)
17. Point Loma (4-3)
18. Madison (6-3)
19. Francis Parker (8-2)
20. La Jolla Country Day (4-2)
21. Steele Canyon (6-3)
22. Grossmont (5-3-1)
23. Santa Fe Christian (4-2)
24. Montgomery (6-2)
25. Scripps Ranch (5-3)
