Entering the final quarter of the 2025 high school spring sports season, the Granite Hills baseball team and El Cajon Valley boys volleyball team remain top contenders to capture San Diego Section championships.
Granite Hills entered the week once again on top of the Division I baseball power rankings with a 14-0-2 record, 6-0 in Grossmont Hills League play. The Eagles continued to lead the second-ranked Point Loma Pointers (11-5-1) for supremacy in the division rankings.
The top eight teams receive entry into the section’s elite Open Division playoffs with the remaining 12 teams battling it out for the Division I championship.
Other Open Division hopefuls include No. 3 La Costa Canyon (11-8), No. 4. St. Augustine (13-7-1), No. 5 San Marcos (14-4-1), No. 6. Patrick Henry (12-7-2), No. 7 Eastlake (11-7-1) and No. 8 Carlsbad (12-8).
No. 9 Cathedral Catholic (12-6) would move into the No. 1 slot for the remaining Division I teams, followed by No. 10 Torrey Pines (10-11) in the No. 2 slot, No. 11 Del Norte (11-9) in the No. 3 slot and No. 12 Sage Creek (12-8) in the No. 4 slot.
Rounding out the division would be No. 13 Rancho Bernardo (11-9), No. 14 La Jolla Country Day (11-9), No. 15 Bonita Vista (8-13), No. 16 Santa Fe Christian (8-10), No. 17 Poway (6-14), No. 18. Scripps Ranch (6-15), No. 19 Montgomery (7-12) and No. 20 Maranatha Christian (3-17).
Teams that have played challenging non-league schedules could have a surprise for opponents as league play starts to fill out the remaining regular season schedule.
Granite Hills extended its home winning streak to 15 games after topping visiting Grossmont, 14-0, on April 22.
Senior Brenden Lewis tops regulars in the lineup with a 0.400 hitting average in 16 games with 16 RBI and five home runs. He’s followed on the scoresheet by senior Tommy Entrekin at 0.390 with a team-leading 18 RBI and three home runs.
Senior Parker Vance was hitting 0.340 through 16 games with 16 RBI and two home runs. Junior Anthony Miotti was hitting 0.325 through 15 games with nine RBI while senior Trevor Smith was hitting 0.321 in 16 games with five RBI.
Other team leaders included sophomores Brodey Vicars with a 0.306 hitting average and Eurijah Schutza with a 0.298 hitting average, both with seven RBI.
As a team, the Eagles are hitting 0.313 with 22 doubles, four triples and 10 home runs.
Pitching leaders include Lewis with a 5-0 record, 0.72 earned-run average and 51 strikeouts in 39 innings to go with one save while senior Luke Bailey was 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 39 innings.
Senior Josh Butters sported a 0.84 ERA while Smith had yet to allow an earned run in four appearances. Entrekin had logged a 1.05 ERA in eight appearances while junior Scott Russell had yet to allow an earned run in six appearances spanning 11.1 innings with nine strikeouts.
Granite Hills’ hurlers have posted a cumulative 0.82 ERA with 123 strikeouts in 111 innings.
Entrekin had four RBI in the win over Grossmont, including a home run, while senior Phillip Jones had three RBI with a pair of doubles. Lewis struck out five batters while allowing one hit in four innings to record the win on the mound.
Around the horn
Santana improved to 2-0 in Grossmont Valley League play with a weekend sweep of El Cajon Valley — 23-1 on April 24 and 16-1 on April 25 — to raise its overall record to 9-10.
The Sultans made the most of 12 hits and 10 Braves errors in the first game and came back with 10 hits the following day.
Freshman Gavin Kelly had four RBI in the series opener while senior Nathan Dowers contributed three RBI and junior Brady Johnson tacked on two RBI. Five pitchers combined to allow three hits with 11 strikeouts with senior Brandon Landers picking up the win.
Freshman Joseph Dibble (double) keyed Santana with three RBI in last Friday’s game while classmate Greg Ryan (triple) had two RBI. Sophomore Ryder Davey also knocked in two runs. Senior Trevor Eckis struck out five batters in two innings while junior Christian Levesque racked up 11 strikeouts in four frames.
The Sultans defeated the host Sweetwater Red Devils, 6-1, on April 22 as Davey logged two RBI and junior Xander Bennett and seniors Landers and Noah Lewis each drove in one run. Freshman Israel Sanchez pitched the opening 4.1 innings with four hits, one run allowed and three strikeouts while Dowers finished up the last 2.2 innings with two hits, no runs allowed and five strikeouts.
Eckis is batting 0.412 in 18 games with six RBI, three doubles and one home run while Landers is hitting 0.326 with nine RBI, two doubles and two home runs.
Twelve teams qualify for the playoffs in Division I through Division IV and 10 each in Division V and Division V-AA.
League champions are automatic qualifiers.
Division II hopefuls include No. 7 Helix (11-9), No. 8 Christian (12-6), No. 11 Grossmont (10-11), No. 13 West Hills (10-9), No. 15 El Capitan (7-12) and No. 16 Santana.
Foothills Christian (11-10) entered the week No. 11 in the Division IV depth chart while Mountain Empire (8-4) was No. 13.
Liberty Charter (7-8) ranked No. 4 among Division V-AA schools.
Softball
Christian (18-4-1) continues to hang behind No. 1 Mater Dei Catholic (16-3) and No. 2 Bonita Vista (17-5) in the Division I power rankings at No. 3. Teams likely competing outside the Open Division include No. 15 El Capitan (5-12), No. 16 Patrick Henry (8-11), No. 17 Steele Canyon (9-11-1) and No. 19 Granite Hills (6-13-1).
There are more East County teams near the top in the Division II power rankings: No. 3 Santana (10-7), No. 4 West Hills (12-7-1), No. 9 Helix (11-5), No. 12 Valhalla (7-13)
No. 11 Foothills Christian (5-6), No. 17 Grossmont (7-12-1) and No. 19 Liberty Charter (5-7) were hopefuls in Division III while No. 4 Mountain Empire (4-2) and No. 10 Mt. Miguel (3-8) were hoping to make a stand in Division V.
Spike it!
No. 1 El Cajon Valley (28-7) continues to hold the edge over Clairemont (21-9) in the Division II power rankings. Next up are No. 3 San Marcos (18-10), No. 4 University City (17-10), No. 5 San Dieguito Academy (20-14), No. 6 La Jolla (14-19), No. 7 Patrick Henry (19-7), No. 8 Mission Hills (13-9), No. 9 Mt. Carmel (11-14) and No. 10 Pacific Ridge (16-16).
Helix (17-16) is No. 14 in the division power rankings.
Foothills Christian (16-11) stood No. 2 in Division III while Santana (9-11) was No. 9.
West Hills (17-13) was No. 5 in Division IV while Christian (12-11) was No. 8, El Capitan (18-12) was No. 9, Valhalla (8-16) was No. 14 and Steele Canyon (6-11) was No. 16.
Monte Vista (14-6) topped Division V schools while Mountain Empire (7-7) was chasing a playoff berth in Division V-AA at No. 9.
Kills leaders for ECV include senior Mustafa Sarferaz (233), junior Sayed Hashimi (181) and senior Kaden Porter (172). Senior Faisal Kakar tops the Braves with 290 digs, followed by Sarfarez with 212.
Senior Mohammad Afzali leads with 516 assists while Porter is on top with 24 serving aces and senior Micky Marcelo Perez with 50 blocks.
