Baseball isn’t the only spring
sport they play with excellence at Poway.
Stationed in the No. 8 spot
in the San Diego Union-Tribune softball
preseason ratings, the Titans proved they no doubt deserve higher
consideration.
The Titans (6-0)
toppled the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the UT preseason poll on their way to
claiming the Gold Division championship of the Escondido Cougar Classic at Kit Carson Park in Escondido.
Sophomore Haley Steele clubbed a three-run home run in the first inning to
start the Titans on their way to a 5-0 victory over No. 2-ranked Mt. Carmel
in the championship game.
Steele batted .500 with nine RBI in the
season-opening tourney as Poway played in the
final for the first time in coach Jim Bennet's seven-year tenure.
These Titans do not rely on one pitcher
or one hitter to carry the load. They are loaded from top to bottom and figure
to secure the No.1 ranking in the CIFSDS in the next balloting.
Arielle Craig and Rebecca Trott combined to spin a two-hit shutout with a total of 12
strikeouts against the two-time defending Division II champion Sun Devils (5-1)
of Mt. Carmel.
Mt. Carmel didn't advance a runner past second
base. Craig pitched the first four innings, and Trott didn't allow a base
runner in her three frames.
Poway catapulted into the title bout via an 8-0 win over No. 2-ranked Escondido in the
semifinals.
Should be some interesting
balloting in the next poll.
More Softball: Falcon freshman one pitch shy of perfect
Torrey Pines freshman
left-hander Lauren Hynes came within
one pitch of twirling a perfect game against No. 6 Steele Canyon in a 7-0 win.
Hynes missed with a 3-2 pitch that led to a sixth-inning walk. She followed that
with three innings of relief to gain the save in a 5-4 victory over No. 7
Rancho Bernardo.
Boys Basketball: Knights’ Leaf captures section’s scoring
title
A three-year starter for
CIFSDS three-time Division V champion Foothills Christian, 6-foot-3 junior Troy
Leaf scored 833 points to edge El Camino’s Luke Evans by six points for the scoring
championship. It is the second consecutive year Leaf has captured the section’s
scoring title.
Troy Leaf, Foothills Christian
File Photo By Todd Shurtleff
Baseball: High
five for El Camino hitter
Junior Joseph Daris of El Camino tied a school
record with five hits in a 10-1 win over Sweetwater. Davis, who is batting at a
.727 clip, also went 2-for-3 in an 8-6 win over Westview.
Boys Track:
Fast start for Torrey Pines sprinter
Torrey Pines’ Bassim El-Sabawi broke the tape with a
time of 10.91 seconds to win the gold medal in the 100 meters at the Rancho
Bernardo Bronco Invitational.
Other
Top Performances
— Daniel Brooks, a junior at El Camino, tied
a school record with six RBI and hammered a home run in an 8-6 win over
Westview. He doubled in a run in a 10-1 victory over Sweetwater and hit a home
run and batted in three runs in a 7-4 win over University City.
— Mount Miguel
junior second baseman Julian Charles
hit .667 with a triple, a grand slam and six RBI as the Matadors mauled San
Diego Southwest and Olympian.
— El Cajon Valley freshman Chelsea Mullens fired a no-hitter in the Braves 13-0 win over
Sweetwater. It was the first softball no-hitter by an El Cajon Valley
pitcher in nearly a decade.
—
Record-setting running back Tyler
Gaffney of Cathedral Catholic is wasting little time making an impact with
the bat. In Cathedral Catholic’s first games three games – all wins – he’s
batting at a .556 clip
— Junior Brett Thomas of Poway went 6-for-9 to
spark the Titans to Hilltop Baseball Tournament wins over St. Augustine, Hilltop and Rancho Buena
Vista.
Coming Attractions
Championship
games for six early season CIFSDS baseball tournaments are slated for Saturday,
Mar. 21. The lineup, which features all of the area’s top teams goes like this:
Eagles-Warriors at Mira Costa College 9 a.m.; Foothiller-Aztec Classic at
Grossmont High 10:30; Hilltop-Lolita’s Tournament at Hilltop 10:30; Pirate-Falcon
Classic at Oceanside at 11; Bully’s East Tournament at Sweetwater in National
City at 11; and Christian Patriots Invitational at El Cajon Christian at 2.
Dickens Dealings
Anyone in
touch with the daily news realizes that high school budgets on all fronts are
starving for funding. Pink slips for teachers are being doled out by the
handfuls. Classroom sizes are swelling and due to the million-dollar budget
shortfalls, extra-curricular activities are obviously in jeopardy of being
reduced or even eliminated.
At many
schools long-time coaches have seen this money shortage coming. Thus they have
organized fundraising activities in full force. Although no coach will probably
come out and say so, veteran mentors are striving to be self-contained.
Granted, they’ve been all but in that state for the past decade in many
districts.
No coach,
however, wants to live by the “pay-to-play” mandate. Think of what kind of
headaches that would cause.
Most school
administrators recognize the value of after-school activities such as athletics.
But some teachers and parents of non-athletes could care less about spending a
dime on sports.
That’s
understandable. That is until you check out the alternative. Many athletic
types attend high school just to play sports. Of that group, most realize the
ability to continue on to the next level means excelling in the classroom.
What if sports
were abolished across the board to save money? How many kids would quit coming
to school because of the lack of sports? Likely more than the administrators
and teachers might like to believe.
Thus, if
denied of a playground to expend their energy, what would these kids do to fill
the void?
Check with you
local law enforcement offices for those answers.
Look at it
this way: high school athletics keeps kids involved in positive activities
rather than on the streets aligned with gangs.
Bottom line:
Is the money – 1 to 4 percent of the total budget – worth providing athletic
programs?
You better
believe it.
