Although
Horizon (San Diego) has won only three of 14 games, Cassidy Coleman has established herself as the most prolific strikeout pitcher in the San Diego Section.
The Panthers senior has logged 970 strikeouts in her four-year career, moving ahead of Francis Parker’s Amye McIntyre (952) and Patrick Henry’s Donna Kerr (925).
Coleman could easily have broken the 1,000-strikeout barrier had she not been suffering from an undisclosed injury. She has had only 56 strikeouts due to the fact that she has pitched in only five games this season.
There are four games remaining in the Panthers’ regular season. There is no certainty that Coleman will pitch in any of those games, thus, the chance for her to become the first 1,000-strikeout pitcher in CIF-SDS history remains up in the air.
BASEBALL: Milestone for La Costa Canyon’s Machado
Justin Machado, coach of the No. 1-ranked CIF-SDS
La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) (20-4) baseball team, celebrated his 300th win in 14 seasons when the Mavericks mashed Escondido 15-2 on Friday.
Make no mistake about it, Machado was proud of reaching that plateau, which only a dozen or so in the section have attained.
"I have so much fun with the kids that I keep coming back," said the Mavericks' 39-year-old skipper. "It’s an honor just to think that I can be included with coaches like Sammy Blalock (
Rancho Bernardo of San Diego), Steve Vickery (El Capitan of Lakeside), Manny Hermosillo (Montgomery of San Diego) among all the others. It makes me feels proud."
During Machado’s tutelage, the Mavericks captured state and national championships in 2003 when they finished 32-1, closing the season with 27 straight wins. His teams have reached the Division I section finals four times. Machado has not forgotten the first win of his coaching career at La Costa Canyon.
"I remember it vividly," he said of the Mavericks’ 4-2 victory over
Scripps Ranch (San Diego) in eight innings.
"Because I was a young coach I don’t remember the 100th win or 200th win because it didn’t seem to matter at the time."
Granite Hills’ Starwalt dealing blanks
In this era of the aluminum bats, a shutout is all but unheard of. That’s what made visiting
Granite Hills (El Cajon)'s 1-0 Grossmont Hills League nod over Helix (La Mesa) so rare. Actually, it was a double-shutout until the Eagles pushed across a run on Mikey Crabb's single in the ninth inning that brought home pinch-runner Nathan Huff from third base.
"If you didn’t like that game, you don’t like baseball," said Granite Hills coach James Davis. "This one had a little bit of everything."
To be sure, it was a pitching duel between Granite Hills sophomore
Daniel Starwalt and Helix junior Jake Reed. The 6-foot-2, 184-pound Starwalt got the best of things when he hurled the full nine innings, while retiring No. 9-ranked Helix (13-7-1, 4-2-1 GHL) in order in five frames. He struck out only four, but did not issue a single walk. Most impressive in his stint was that it took him only 102 pitches to complete the job.
"The way things were going, I knew all I needed was one run to finish on top," Starwalt said. "I’m not sure what my best pitch was. All I wanted to do is keep them hitting the ball on the ground."
Thirteen of Helix’s 27 outs came on ground balls.
Torrey Pines’ DeNato almost perfect
Nobody will argue that
Joey DeNato is the centerpiece of the Torrey Pines (San Diego) baseball team for the Falcons, who are ranked No. 3 in the San Diego Union-Tribune poll. The senior left-hander missed a perfect game by one batter but settled for a no-hitter in beating Fallbrook 4-0. He walked the first batter, then picked him off, and finished with 14 strikeouts. DeNato owns a 7-1 record with a 0.87 ERA, including 65 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings for the Falcons (18-6).
As a batter, DeNato is tied for the CIF-SDS home run lead with eight to go along with a .383 batting average and 21 RBI.
Other top performances
— Rancho Bernardo third baseman
Andrew Daniel went 6 for 9 with two doubles, two home runs, four runs and five RBI as the Broncos vanquished Vista.
— Senior first baseman-pitcher
Tyler Steimel of Brawley batted .500 with five hits and five RBI plus a home run as the Wildcats claimed leadership in the Imperial Valley League lead.
— Carlsbad senior
Josh Walker went 5 for 6 with three RBI as the Lancers stunned Rancho Buena Vista twice in Palomar League baseball encounters.
— Junior Chris Brewer of
Rancho Buena Vista captured the gold in the 1,600-meter run at the Escondido Invitational in a personal-best time of 4 minutes, 11.13 seconds, which is also the top mark in the CIF-SDS this year.
— San Diego High junior
Trey Thompson went 3 for 3 with a home run, a triple and two RBI as the Cavers tamed the Morse (San Diego) Tigers, 6-2.
—
Poway’s Gabrielle Sciuto twirled her second no-hitter of the season in a 3-0 nod over Carlsbad.
— Christina Clermont of
San Marcos struck out 17 and drove in the only run in the Knights’ softball victory over Oceanside.
— Senior setter Kendall Partie of La Costa Canyon was named to the all-tournament boys volleyball team at the Mira Costa-Redondo Classic, leading the Mavericks to wins over Dana Hills and Foothill.
— Freshman Rachel Nasland of Torrey Pines struck out 12 batters in six innings and didn't allow an earned run in a 6-2 win over Fallbrook. She followed with a one-hit shutout and eight strikeouts in beating San Pasqual.
— Senior Eric Cruz, the only the only player in the Patriots' infield who was not a freshman or sophomore, pitched a two-hit shutout over Valley Center, 2-0, and delivered Orange Glen’s first win of the season.
— El Camino sophomore Isiah Jackson won the 110-meter high hurdles (14.5 seconds), the 300-meter intermediate hurdles (41.7) and the long jump (20 feet, 10 inches) in a 104-32 dual-meet victory over Rancho Buena Vista.
Coming attractions
For the third consecutive season, the Padres and PETCO Park will host five regular-season CIF-SDS baseball contests May 7-8. On Friday, Santa Fe Christian will tackle Bishop’s in a Coastal League encounter at 4 p.m. followed by a South Bay League clash between Mar Vista and Castle Park at 7. On Saturday, El Capitan meets Santana in a key Grossmont Valley League duel at 4 p.m. following games between Ramona and Valley Center at 10 and Holtville vs. Palo Verde Valley at 1. The big thing about these games is fans are allowed to sit as close as the front row for the general admission price of $15, which also includes a ducat to the Padres' National League encounter against the Washington Nationals on May 28. Proceeds from these combination tickets serve as a fundraiser for all 10 of the high school teams involved.
Dickens dealings
Credit the CIF San Diego Section Board of Managers for voting to expand the section baseball, softball, and boys and girls soccer playoffs to five divisions from four divisions starting next school year. In considering divisions IV and V, this is a huge step forward, as Division IV has become too big to seed for playoff parity.
Foremost of the changes calls for permanently moving the Division V football championships to a Friday night at a community college or large high school facility. That removes Division V from a rotation with Division IV for playing in Qualcomm Stadium. Thus, the CIF-SDS football playoffs will continue to be a quadruple-header at The Q.
As for Division V playoffs in other sports such baseball (where 40 teams are involved), Christian (El Cajon) baseball coach Mike Mitchell isn’t sure it’s all that good.
"It’s probably better for the very small schools," he said. "But for schools like us with 400 students, we’ll probably end up in Division IV. That’s probably a bigger gap in enrollment than any of the divisions. Do I think it will help us? I don’t know.
"I think it’s all about where they draw the line between Division IV and Division III," he said. "I think we will wind up playing against schools with an enrollment of 1,700."
Added Mitchell, "If they are truly interested in playing teams with equal enrollment, then every division will have the same enrollment gap – for example 100-500, 600-1,500, etc. But the CIF won’t do that.
"What they want is an equal number of teams per division regardless of enrollment."
Although the section administrators are not obligated to placate coaches and teams, this is another tangled web in which the CIF-SDS has caught itself again.
