One of the strongholds in CIF-SDS baseball this year is behind the plate. The San Diego section is loaded in this area with La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.)'s Will Swanner, La Costa Canyon’s Brad Haynal and Scripps Ranch (San Diego, Calif.)'s Wynston Sawyer standing at the head of a talented cast.
As advertised, Swanner is living up to his potential, which includes making him worthy of the scholarship he has accepted to Pepperdine University. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Swanner is batting .485 with four home runs and 13 RBI for the 10-3 Mavericks.
Is he the best of the batch in the eyes of professional scouts?
Nobody will say for sure, but Swanner has hinted that he would rather turn pro than attend college at this point.
OK. So what about the rest of the backstops?
The 6-3, 205-pound Haynal is regarded as the catcher with the best tools. However, unlike Swanner, his signabilty is nowhere near the same. Thus, teams have to decide whether to risk a high draft pick on Haynal or believe that Swanner is a better buy for their money.
You have to love this stuff.
Enter Wynston Sawyer. Is he their best pick?
The Scripps High 6-3 senior catcher was named the MVP of the 6A Division of 60th annual San Diego Lions Tournament. He batted .700 (7-for-10) with two home runs and eight RBI in the tournament. He also had two doubles, five walks, stole three bases and scored six runs.
In the eyes of Falcons baseball coach Ryan Thompson, Sawyer is the pillar of the community.
"We haven’t had a home-run guy like Wynston in quite awhile," Thompson told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "He is our power source for sure. The ball doesn’t carry at our place and the wind blows in from left."
That hasn’t seemed to bother Sawyer, however. All four of his home runs have been into the wind. Thompson told the Union-Tribune that offense is not the only strength for the unsung Sawyer.
"Nobody runs on him," Thompson said.
Other catchers who may raise an eyebrow or two include Madison’s Garrett Gallacher, El Cajon Christian’s four-year starter Michael Gruber, Patrick Henry’s Andrew Katz, Valhalla’s Bryce Mosier, La Jolla’s Aaron Steigerwalt, Point Loma’s Sean Stepina, El Capitan’s sophomore Charles Moorman (injured), Ramona’s Alex Willeford and Torrey Pines’ Garrett Stubbs.
El Capitan stringbean playing long ball
At 6-2, 154 pounds, Lakeside El Capitan’s Sheldon Gabriels hardly is the prototype of a home-run hitter. Yet the junior second baseman leads the CIF-SDS in home runs with six in 12 games.
Gabriels broke loose for three circuit blasts in El Capitan’s 12-2 romp over Libertyville (Ill.) in the Big League Dugout National Tournament at Horizon High in Scottsdale (Ariz.).
By slugging three home runs against the Wildcats from Illinois, Gabriels tied an El Capitan record set by former Vaquero and all-time San Diego CIF career long-ball leader Chris Walston (2002 vs. Mount Miguel). Gabriels belted solo shots in the first and second innings and then punched a three-run homer in the fifth frame.
Only two players in CIF-SDS history have smacked more homers in a single contest – former major-leaguer Jim Tatum (Santee Santana) vs. El Cajon Valley in 1985 and Fallbrook’s Clark Murphy vs. Poway in 2008. Gabriels joins a group of 24 that has hit three round-trippers in a second outing.
Gabriels has a ways to go if he expects to catch former El Capitan hammerhead Walston, who established the CIF-SDS career home run record of 22 in 2002. Against the Wildcats from Illinois, Gabriels was 3-for-3 with five RBI and was named to the all-tournament team.
Raving about Ravens pitcher’s perfecto
Canyon Crest Academy (San Diego, Calif.)'s Matt Malott pitched the San Diego Section’s 12th perfect game in 50 years, striking out 10 Bloomfield (Colo.) batters in the process.
La Mesa swinger can’t miss
Helix (La Mesa, Calif.) junior Mauro Olivarria banged out three hits against Pomona (Arvada, Colo.) in the Cherry Field Classic in Tucson (Ariz.). In addition to his first home run, he ripped a double and drove in four runs. For the five-game Cherry Field tournament, Olivarria batted .684 (13-for-19) with eight RBI hitting in the No. 2 slot.
SOFTBALL: West Hills leaders of the Pack
Jenna Basnight clubbed a pair of home runs in the championship game while pitcher Noelle Johnson won a pair of ballgames during Saturday's final day of the Falcon Fiesta, leading West Hills (Santee) to the title.
The Wolf Pack, owners of the top record in the CIF-SDS at 11-1-1, downed Westview (San Diego), 9-7 in 9 innings in the semifinals. The Wolf Pack then gobbled up tournament host Torrey Pines (San Diego), 9-2, while belting a school-record four home runs.
Basnight, who finished beating up the Falcons to the tune of five RBI, including a grand slam, was named outstanding player of the tournament. Meanwhile, Johnson, who ironically might have been Torrey Pines' pitcher had her family not moved to Santee two years ago, was named the event's most outstanding pitcher.
FOOTBALL: Salute to military combo
Although Granite Hills (El Cajon, Calif.) finished a forgettable 3-7 last fall, the Eagles did score big in terms of Division I football scholarships. And the two Eagles who are advancing to the next level deserve a salute – kicker Tyler Strickland to Army and long snapper Joe Cardona to Navy.
Other top performances
— Christian (El Cajon, Calif.) sophomore catcher Mary Grabowski had a stalwart week in Las Vegas at the Charger Classic. She drove in 18 runs, hit a grand slam and threw out two players attempting to steal and was named the catcher of the tournament.
— Two of Scripps Ranch righthander Dylan Tye’s three victories have come by shutout.
— Mission Hills (San Marcos) senior southpaw Tyler Buckles has compiled a 3-0 pitching record, with all three of the wins coming in walk-off victories.
— Mia Sprau of San Dieguito Academy (Encinitas, Calif.) was 10 for 12 with two RBI, seven runs, three doubles and two stolen bases in four Rancho Buena Vista Longhorn Softball Tournament games.
— Carlsbad sophomore softball standout Tori Nirschl batted .467 (7 for 15) with two triples, a pair of home runs, seven RBI, four runs and two steals as the Lancers finished second in the Las Vegas Gold Division of the Charger Invitational.
— Mt. Carmel (San Diego, Calif.) junior pitcher Bree Williams is 14-3 in 17 games with a 0.89 ERA in 109 2/3 innings pitched.
— Rancho Bernardo (San Diego, Calif.) junior Andrew Daniel went 3 for 5 with three runs, six RBI, a home run and a double in the Broncos victory over Temecula Valley.
— The Oceanside Pirates’ infield turned three double plays in a 3-0 victory over University City (San Diego).
— Poway senior Josh Anderson went 4 for 7 with two home runs and seven RBI as the Titans capsized El Camino Real (Woodland Hills) and San Diego Montgomery in the Lions Tournament.
Coming attractions
A pair of tournament championship baseball tournament games and a basketball all-star game are on tap this weekend. On Friday there are a couple of choices for entertainment in San Diego County — the North County Conference championship baseball game at Escondido at 7:30 p.m. or the all-star girls-boys basketball doubleheader at San Diego High.
The senior basketball showcase pits the top girls players at 5:30 p.m. and the best of the graduating boys at 8 p.m. Of course, these games will feature 3-point shooting contests as well as a slam-dunk exhibition prior to the tipoff of the boys game. Not to be overlooked is the baseball championship of the City Conference Tournament on Saturday at Cathedral Catholic at 2 p.m.
Dickens dealings
More often than not, coaches who pitch in longevity have teams that finish under the radar not by choice but do so for years on end. As the saying goes, nobody remembers the runner-up.
Gene Watkins, who has previously coached football and baseball in programs slumbering near the bottom of their respective leagues, has recently rebuilt the Mira Mesa (San Diego) baseball facility from top to bottom. Credit Watkins for transforming a field where it was next to impossible to hit home runs into a respectable diamond. The schematic for this field is more like a baseball field now rather than a playground where nobody really cared about dimensions and details.
Watkins struggled in the first of his six Mira Mesa seasons, when his Marauders finished 9-17. He has since turned the program around. Mira Mesa has won 20 or more games in three of the past four seasons. Recently Watkins collected his 100th baseball victory at Mira Mesa, a school where baseball was not prominent.
It’s guys like Watkins that keep high school sports alive. His 2007 team won the Eastern League baseball championship and was a CIF-SDS semifinalist, finishing with a 25-9 record. Watkins previously had coached football from 1983 to 1987 at El Cajon Valley, where the program was almost dead. His teams’ best finish was 5-4-1 in 1987 before he moved on to other ventures.
The bottom line is coaches like Watkins are growing fewer and fewer. All the paperwork and parental pressure are forcing coaches to seek another line of work.