On a cold, blustery Tuesday afternoon dotted with a bit of mist in the air, the Eastlake High School baseball team got hot at the right time to punch its ticket to Saturday’s San Diego Section Open Division championship game.
Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, junior Ethan Cashetta reached base on a single and sophomore teammate Nick Vallarelli, serving as the team’s designated hitter, followed with a two-run home run into the wind to lift the top-seeded Titans (25-4-1) to a dramatic 3-1 victory over fourth-seeded Torrey Pines (20-13-1) to add some color – and a lot of postgame cheering – to an otherwise gray day.
EHS head coach Dave Gallegos said his team’s berth in Saturday’s CIF title game at SDSU’s Tony Gwynn Stadium (7 p.m. start) was not expected.
“We have such a young team, I didn’t expect this,” he said. “The kids are overachievers. They’ve all worked hard and it’s paid off.
“Everyone has had to work hard. Considering all the players we lost (to graduation last season), our pitching has been phenomenal. Everyone has stepped up.”
Gallegos is not joking about the performance of the team’s pitchers, who have had to be especially sharp on the hill when the team wasn’t scoring a lot of runs at the start of the season.
Senior Ricky Tibbett drew Tuesday’s starting assignment and pitched a complete game, scattering six hits while striking out four batters. He walked two and hit one batter. The one run he gave up was unearned.
Tibbett, who has signed a letter of intent to attend SDSU, faced 26 batters while throwing 88 pitches to improve to 12-1 on the season.
He had to be sharp when it counted most with the specter of what befell the team in last year’s Open Division playoffs. Eastlake earned the No. 1 seed but lost its first game. The Titans battled back to challenge for a berth in the final through the consolation bracket but came up one victory short.
The Titans managed to stay in the winners bracket this season.
Tuesday’s victory extended the Titans’ current winning streak to nine games. The last time Eastlake lost was, 7-4, to Torrey Pines in a San Diego Lions tournament game on April 17.
“It’s always nice to play at home in front of big crowds but we were 11-1 away, so we play good ball home and away,” Gallegos said. “Going into today’s game we were a bit uptight but that happens when teams are so young.”
Both teams scored their opening runs via miscues.
Iran Fuentes and Jordan Waller each drew walks in the bottom of the fourth inning with the game still scoreless. Fuentes scored on an errant pick-off play at second base to stake the hosts to a 1-0 lead.
Torrey Pines battled back to meet Eastlake with a pair challenger bracket wins over eighth-seeded Cathedral Catholic (2-1 last Friday) and fifth-seeded Rancho Bernardo (5-4 last Saturday) after dropping a 3-2 decision to Rancho Bernardo in the opening round.
The Falcons tied the game in the top of the fifth inning on a fielding error and led off the top of the sixth inning with a triple by Jake Connelly but Tibbett stranded him there with a bit of strategic pitching that included a groundout, intentional walk, strikeout and popup to end the inning.
That set the stage for Cashetta and Vallarelli’s dramatic combo punch in the bottom of the frame.
Cashetta, Vallarelli, Keoni Cavaco and Jake Cekander were the only Titans to collect hits in Tuesday’s game off Falcon starter Matthew Schlesener. Seven Eastlake players struck out in the game.
The Titans turned a double play to end Tuesday’s game, at which point the post-game celebration began.
This marks the fourth time in the last five years that the Titans have reached the championship game. Eastlake settled for a pair of runner-up finishes in 2015 in Division I to Poway and 2016 in the Open Division to Cathedral Catholic before capturing the Open Division title in 2017 with an 8-3 win over Helix.
“Our kids work hard and we have a great coaching staff,” Gallegos noted in regard to the team’s ongoing standard for excellence. “When you come here, you expect to win because of what the alumni has established here – a tradition of winning.”
Cavaco was a sophomore when Eastlake won its last CIF championship. He attributed the team’s overachieving success this season to … hard work.
“We just grinded it out, the whole season we just kept working,” he said. “We relied on our pitching and relied on our bats to back it up.”
Cavaco has more than one reason to smile these days. He said he is forgoing college to enter Major League Baseball’s amateur draft and become a professional baseball player.
He is rated as one of the top prospects in San Diego County.
The draft is scheduled June 3.
“I’m excited,” he said.
Eastlake will face third-seeded Poway (26-5) in Saturday’s Open Division championship game in a match-up of teams with Titan nicknames after Poway defeated second-seeded Helix (20-13) by a score of 9-0 on Tuesday.
The teams have not met this season, though Poway defeated Eastlake twice in last year’s Open Division playoffs, including a 5-4 setback in 10 innings that ended the season for Eastlake.
Poway, which is riding the crest of a 10-game winning streak, racked up 12 hits in Tuesday’s win over the Highlanders, who were limited to just four hits in the loss.
Raider Nation: Southwest advances to Division IV CIF final
Top-seeded Southwest (25-9) defeated 12th-seeded Maranatha Christian (19-10) by a score of 7-2 on Tuesday to advance to Saturday’s Division IV championship game at Poway High School.
The Raiders pushed across four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a quick lead and counted two runs scored by the Eagles in the top of the fourth inning with two of their own in the bottom of the frame to lead 6-2.
Diego Ruiz went two-for-four at the plate with three RBI while Dominic Escobar had two hits at the plate to drive in two runs. Adrian Sanchez went two-for-three and had one RBI while scoring twice.
Aldo Cañedo had two hits and scored two runs.
Ruiz hit a double while Sanchez hit a triple.
Jorge Martinez went the distance on the hill, scattering five hits while striking out eight batters. Martinez threw 96 pitches and faced 26 batters.
“Jorge Martinez pitched a complete game with excellent command, and Aldo Cañedo, Diego Ruiz, Dominic Escobar had huge defensive plays in crucial situations,” Southwest coach Dallas Fialkowski said after the clutch win.
“Raul Bojorquez controlled the game behind the dish calling a great game,” the Raiders dugout boss added.
Fialkowski said the Southwest team is piecing together timely hitting in crucial situations to get runners in from scoring positions.
“Today was a great accomplishment with the Raiders making it to the finals of the CIF championship playoffs to continue the success at the school, with our basketball team winning a CIF championship,” Failkowski said.
“I’m very proud of the young men I have coached this season; they have stepped up to the pressure to succeed. They have set out to win the CIF championship and they have earned their spot to accomplish this season long goal. I couldn’t have been more proud of the men and baseball players they have become. One more game to make history.”
Southwest will face third-seeded Mt. Carmel (16-15) in Saturday’s championship game (3:30 p.m. start) after edging 10th-seeded West Hills, 2-1, on Tuesday.
West Hills (14-16) eliminated fifth-seeded Sweetwater, 10-1, on Saturday after dropping a 5-0 decision at Mt. Carmel the previous day.
Batter up:
Sixth-seeded Bonita Vista dropped a 2-1 contest in 11 innings at third-seeded Sage Creek in a Division II playoff game. The teams will rematch on Thursday, with the winner advancing to meet top-seeded Classical Academy (29-4) in Saturday’s CIF championship game at SDSU (3:30 p.m. start).
DiMaggio Cazares hit a home run to tie the game in the top of the third inning while Lucas Marrujo earned the Barons player of the game award after scattering four hits over eight innings.
Nate Nankil pitched 2.1 innings in relief in taking the loss.
Top-seeded Calvary Christian Academy defeated eighth-seeded Army-Navy Academy, 2-0, on Saturday to advance to Tuesday’s game against fourth-seeded Morse, needing to defeat the Tigers (18-10) twice to advance to Saturday’s Division V title game at Poway High School (noon start).
Calvary Christian Academy (19-4) topped Morse, 4-3, in a must-win game on Tuesday to draw a rematch on Thursday.
Christian Nafarrate and Mark Cervantes each drove in one run for the top-seeded Royal Knights in Tuesday’s game as the victors made the most of four hits. Cervantes scored two runs, including one on a solo home run, after reach base three times in the contest.
Malachi Chapman pitched a complete game three-hitter with six strikeouts to pick up the win.
The win was the third consecutive for CCA in the challenger bracket after suffering a 6-3 loss to eight-seeded Army-Navy Academy (11-10) in the opening round.
Morse dropped to 18-11.
The CCA-Morse winner will face the winner between third-seeded High Tech High Chula Vista and sixth-seeded Mt. Miguel.
High Tech High Chula Vista, given new life by a forfeit win over Orange Glen on Saturday, defeated Mt. Miguel, 9-2, on Tuesday to force a replay between the teams on Thursday, with the winner advancing to the Division V title game.
HTH Chula Vista bombarded Matador pitching with 14 hits. Ruben Roman led the Bruins (19-5) with three RBI while Benjamin Williams had four hits and drove in two runs. Esteban Flores, Williams and Roman each scored two runs.
Jacob Robinette received credit for the win after pitching 6.2 innings with seven strikeouts against four walks. He allowed four hits and gave up one earned run.
The Matadors, who previously shellacked the Bruins by a score of 11-0 on May 15, dropped to 13-19.
Williams leads HTH CV with a .544 hitting average with 34 RBI while Roman is batting .538 with 18 RBI. Junior Kai Saterstrom (.492) leads the Bruins with 38 RBI.
Robinette improved to 5-2 on the mound with a 1.61 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 56 innings.
No. 6 Bonita Vista downs second-seeded Point Loma, 6-4, to grab second consecutive upset win to start CIF playoffs
Bubba Villegas drove in two runs and Daniel McElveny, Caiden Ragadio and Nate Nankil each had one RBI as sixth-seeded Bonita Vista stunned the second-seeded Point Loma Pointers, 6-4, in a second-round double-elimination game played May 17.
Nankil led the Barons with three hits in the game while DiMaggio Cazares scored two runs.
Bonita Vista collected 10 hits in the game, including a home run by Villegas.
Omar Vega pitched five innings, allowed four hits and two runs, one of them earned, while Cazares and Nankil each pitched one inning.
The three BV pitchers allowed seven hits. Austin Curtice hit a home run for the Pointers. Curtice also was the pitcher of record for Point Loma, completing seven innings with five strikeouts and five earned runs.
The win advanced the Barons to Tuesday’s game against third-seeded Sage Creek after the Bobcats eliminated Point Loma, 7-6, on Saturday.
The Pointers opened first-round double-elimination tournament by topping 10th-seeded Otay Ranch, 6-1, on May 15. Junior Damian Tarin pitched for the Mustangs, who were eliminated by Sage Creek, 8-0, on May 17.
Photo Gallery by Scott Hopkins
