The San Diego Padres’ seventh annual High School All-Stars Night took place June 25 at Petco Park. The “big league” feel had an impact on the participants as La Jolla Country Day senior Jackson Norum clubbed a home run for the West team and Poway junior outfielder Parker Smith earned MVP honors with a RBI single, double, walk and two stolen bases in the East team’s 8-3 victory.
“It’s just what you can imagine it is to play at Petco Park — to be on that stage to play in front of your family,” San Diego Section commissioner Joe Heinz said. “I thank the Padres. It’s a special night of the season.”
The East team was buoyed by a large cast of seven East County picks, including four from Granite Hills: senior pitcher Luke Bailey, senior outfielder Trevor Smith, senior infielder/pitcher Brenden Lewis and senior third baseman Tommy Entrekin. Also on board the East team were Helix senior pitcher/infielder Antoin Simpson, Valhalla senior catcher Mace Wheeler and West Hills senior catcher Joey Monetti.
“It’s an honor,” Bailey said. “I’ve never played in Petco Park before, so this was a special experience for me. It was great to play with the best players in the county.”
Bailey, who has committed to continue his baseball career at UC Santa Barbara, performed a head over heels flip after getting the final out in the Open Division final to give Granite Hills its first undefeated season at 24-0-2. The Eagles were the only team in the state to post an undefeated record through the section playoffs.
“An inning before I thought I had to do something special if I struck out the last batter,” Bailey said. “It was pretty neat.”
Bailey (6-1, 170) completed the season with a 12-0 record, 1.03 earned-run average and 75 strikeouts in 68 innings.
Lewis was another leader on the Eagles history-making team with a 0.373 hitting average, 40 runs scored, 26 RBI and eight home runs. On the mound he was also undefeated at 7-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 56 innings.
“Honestly, it was pretty special, especially with the company I’m playing with,” said Lewis, who has elected to continue his baseball career at Arizona State University. “I had waited all four years to win a CIF title. It was how I wanted my senior year to go out. I was blessed that it happened.”
“It was awesome,” said Entrekin, an Alpine resident, who plans to attend Cal Baptist University. “I was excited to go out on top.”
Simpson became a two-time all-star selection.
“It’s obviously an honor to be selected again to play in this game,” said Simpson, who will attend Grand Canyon University. “I was in the home run derby last year. It’s definitely an honor to play against the top talent in the county.”
The home run derby kicked off the event with four players from each team trying to swat baseballs out of Petco Park. Several were successful and a points system allocated balls hit to certain areas of the outfield, including balls reaching the warning track.
Three of the four hitters on the East team were from East County: Granite Hills’ Lewis and Entrekin and Valhalla’s Wheeler.
La Jolla Country Day’s Norum racked up 14 points in the preliminary round, followed by Wheeler and Lewis each with 13 points. Patrick Henry junior Ian Brooke finished with six points, while Sage Creek senior Elijah Stephens and Mt. Carmel senior Bryce Miller each tallied five points. San Marcos senior Max Ferrell netted four points while Entrekin had three points.
Lewis, Wheeler and Norum qualified for the finals. Lewis emerged on top of the trio with nine points, followed by Wheeler with four points and Norum with three points.
Lewis was the overall leader with 22 points. Wheeler and Norum finished with 17 total points.
During the season, Wheeler led Valhalla (7-19) with a 0.493 hitting average, 22 RBI and six home runs while Norum averaged 0.418 at the plate with 22 RBI and six home runs for the Torreys (18-14).
The Eagles have maintained a tradition with players annually named to the Petco Park all-star game.
“We’ve had a lot of good players, a great community,” Granite Hills head coach James Davis said.
Davis remains proud of his team’s 26-game undefeated streak this spring.
“It was amazing, historic, hard to do,” Davis elaborated. “It was a good run.”
Can the Eagles do it again?
“Four or five starters are coming back,” the GHHS coach said. “We did lose a lot, six to colleges.”
Batter up
The all-star event also included a nine-inning game. The contest was close until the East squad blew open the scoreboard with three runs in the seventh and eighth innings.
Imperial senior Carter Tucker started on the mound for the East team with Wheeler behind the plate. Tucker struck out the first two batters before Sage Creek’s Stephens legged out an infield hit. Norum struck out to end the threat.
The East countered with two runs in its half of the first frame to lead 2-0. Rancho Bernardo junior Hugo Gonzalez drew a walk, took second base on a passed ball and scored on a basehit by Poway’s Parker Smith. Helix’s Simpson drew another walk while Smith stole third base. Entrekin doubled the East lead with an infield chopper.
Each team used a different pitcher per inning.
Bailey, one of the heroes of the Eagles’ climactic 3-0 shutout win over Patrick Henry in the section’s Open Division final, threw the top of the second inning for the East. He sent the West order down 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts.
The East extended its lead to 3-0 with a run in the bottom of the second inning. Rancho Bernardo junior outfielder Bray Strachan doubled, Granite Hills’ Smith was hit by a pitch and Lewis grounded out to bring in a run.
Eastlake senior Nick Romero pitched the top of the third inning, yielding one run on a double by La Jolla senior Hank Hansen and a sacrifice fly by Del Norte senior Liam O’Day to trim the East lead to 3-1.
Norum made it 3-2 with his home run. He was all smiles as he rounded third base to be greeted at the plate.
Helix’s Lewis pitched the top of the fifth inning with Monetti cutting down a runner attempting to steal to close out the frame.
The teams remained separated by one run until the bottom of the fifth inning.
With one out, Poway senior Trenton Uyeda drew a walk, then stole second base. Poway’s Parker Smith followed with a walk. A double steal netted another run when the ball was dropped at second base on the throw from the plate. An error, stolen base and another dropped ball led to a second run in the inning.
5-2 East.
An outfield error allowed Coronado senior Patch Moore to score in the top of the sixth inning to make the score 5-3. But the West couldn’t draw any closer.
Calexcio senior Randy Baez tripled off El Camino senior Zane Nordquist to jump-start the bottom of the seventh inning and scored on a wild pitch to up the East lead to 6-3. San Ysidro senior Axel Reyes singled and was subsequently balked (twice) to third base. West Hills’ Monetti drew a walk to put runners at the corners.
With San Ysidro senior Armann Robles at the plate, El Camino’s Nordquist was charged with a third balk in the inning to plate another East run for a 7-3 lead.
Simpson pitched the top of the eighth inning, holding the West scoreless.
The East responded with another run in the bottom of the eighth inning against Madison junior Jeremiah Jennings as El Centro Southwest senior Cole Redden drove in Patrick Henry junior Ian Brooke.
That made the final 8-3 when Classical Academy senior Aidan Suitor closed put the top of the ninth inning despite issuing a lead-off walk to San Marcos senior Grayson Wren. Mt. Carmel senior Bryce Miller popped out, Madison senior Jack O’Toole struck out and Chula Vista senior Pablo Alvarado ended the game with a fly-out.
Players on both sides called the chance to represent their schools on the section’s biggest stage a memorable experience.
“It’s pretty cool,” said Romero, who will continue his career at Westmont College (NCAA Division II). “I played here for one of our league games against Montgomery as part of the high school series at Petco Park. It was a really special experience all four years at Eastlake. I started off on the freshman team, nobody thought I’d amount to anything, but I got called up.”
The Titans finished 21-11-1 this season, advancing as far as the semifinals in the Open Division playoffs. A 2-0 setback to Patrick Henry prevented Eastlake from meeting Granite Hills in the championship game.
Eastlake came back to advance to the semifinals of the Southern California regional tournament before ending its season with an 8-5 setback to eventual division champion Rancho Bernardo.
“We didn’t start out the season strong, but we picked it up and were playing our best baseball by the time the playoffs started,” Romero said. “Our coach told us if we we’re playing your best in May, we’d have to be happy wherever it goes.”
The San Ysidro Cougars advanced as far as the Division II championship game, finishing the season with a 21-13 record following a 7-3 loss to the Mt. Carmel Sundevils in the championship game at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
Both Robles and Reyes called it a “blessing” to represent the Cougars at the Petco Park all-star game.
“Not a lot of players get to come here and show off their skills,” Robles said.
“It’s exciting, it’s a great experience,” Reyes added.
Both San Ysidro players capped four-year careers on the diamond with the Cougars.
“They brought us all the way from Division IV to Division I (where we’ll be next year),” San Ysidro head coach Ray Lozano Jr. said. “They’ve been starters since freshmen.”
La Jolla Country Day coach John Edman served as the West manager while Mater Dei Catholic veteran skipper Eddie Johnson served as the East manager.
Otay Ranch head coach Ray San Miguel served as one of the assistant coaches on the East team. He helped lead the Mustangs to a runner-up finish in this year’s Division IV section final, an 8-6 setback to the Ramona Bulldogs.
“It means rewarding the players for what they accomplished over the year,” San Miguel said in regard to the Padres’ all-star game.
