Metro baseball, softball league championship races heating up as CIF playoffs loom

The Metro Conference’s three baseball leagues appeared up for grabs entering the final two weeks of regular season play.

No team is undefeated. Two of the three leagues featured a one-game separation at the top (Metro-Mesa League and Metro-South Bay League) while another was tied (Metro-Pacific League).

San Ysidro handed Bonita Vista, off to a 3-0 league start, a stinging 8-4 loss last Friday after clubbing the host Cougars, 12-1, two days beforehand.

The loss dropped the Barons (9-14 overall) to 3-1 in league play while San Ysidro and Eastlake followed with 2-2 league records.

With five league games remaining, there is plenty of room to potentially scramble the standings.

“It’s going to be a great race,” San Ysidro coach Ray Lozada said after the win over the Barons. “We’ve got to continue to play small ball as we’re not a heavy-hitting team.”
Senior Armann Robles (two doubles) led the Cougars with four RBI while senior Antonio Soto pitched 5.2 innings for the win.

Otay Ranch looked unbeatable after getting off to a 5-0 start in Metro-South Bay League play with several crunching victories — 8-3 and 9-0 over Olympian, 10-5 and 5-0 over Sweetwater and 9-3 over Hilltop.

But a three-game losing streak promptly followed and Otay Ranch has been cut down to size somewhat with a 5-3 league record, though the Mustangs entered the week one game out of first place behind Mater Dei Catholic (6-2 in league, 12-12 overall).

Hilltop knocked Otay Ranch from the ranks of the league unbeatens with a clutch 7-5 home win on April 25.

Mater Dei Catholic played leap- frog in the standings by dealing the Mustangs 4-3 and 3-2 defeats.

Chula Vista defeated visiting Mar Vista, 3-2, in a clutch game on Tuesday to knot the league standings at 4-1 between the teams. The Mariners (11-13 overall) had moved out in front at 4-0 after doubling up Castle Park and Southwest.

The Spartans (13-9-2) recovered from a 5-2 loss to visiting Southwest on April 24 with consecutive wins over Castle Park (12-4 on April 29 and 10-0 on May 1) to position itself for a crack at Mar Vista.

Chula Vista captured the run-rule win over the Trojans behind two RBI each by seniors Gabriel Mendoza and Joe Alterado, junior Julian Martinez and junior pitcher Jose De la Cruz (three hits, nine strikeouts in six innings).

CVHS veteran coach Jim Westlund called Tuesday’s game a result of “key hits from key players and key pitching.”

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when senior Pablo Alvarado drew a walk from MV starter Peter Thomas (among the section leaders with 91 strikeouts), freshman Noah Gomez followed with a hit, De la Cruz doubled for one RBI and Alterado skimmed the ball off the first base bag down the line for two more runs.

The Mariners responded with two runs in the top of the seventh inning before two pitching changes by the hosts eventually closed out the key win. Sophomore Jorge Lopez pitched the first 6.1 innings to snare the victory.

Besides vying for supremacy in league play, Tuesday’s game pitted teams vying for Division IV playoff berths. The league champion gets an automatic trip to the postseason.

“With six games in two weeks to determine league champion and CIF qualifiers, it’s shaping up to be a wild finish,” Westlund said. “Division IV is very competitive. As far as we’re concerned, we need to go out and win every game and the power rankings will take care of themselves.”

SOFTBALL: Juggernauts collide

The Metro-Mesa League softball circuit doesn’t provide much room for error with each of the four member teams playing each other twice for a total of six league games.

By comparison, the Metro Conference’s three baseball leagues tack on a final round-robin at the conclusion of double-round play (nine games in the Metro-Mesa League).

The Mater Dei Catholic Lady Crusaders are halfway home with a 3-0 league record following a pair of wins against the Eastlake Lady Titans (5-2 on April 30 and 4-2 on Monday) and last Friday’s 2-1 showdown win over the Bonita Vista Lady Barons.

Mater Dei Catholic entered the week at No. 1 in the San Diego Section Division I power rankings. Bonita Vista, which had been ranked No. 1 earlier in the season and riding No. 2 recently, dropped to No. 3 behind new No. 2 Poway.

It’s obvious there isn’t much that separates No. 1 from No. 3.

Juniors Gigi Flores and Bella Harris eachdrove in one run to key the Lady Crusaders in support of sophomore Ari Romero (seven innings, three hits, four strikeouts) in the pitching circle. Junior Liana Quinones and senior Bella Hiner each scored once.

Romero improved to 16-3 with 105 strikeouts in 111 innings.

BV senior Danica Aboytes gave up five hits and one earned run.

Bonita Vista played its third league game on Wednesday against visiting Eastlake. The Lady Barons emerged on top 8-1 to improve to 2-1 in league play.

The hosts scored in the first inning and nursed a tight 1-0 lead until scoring three times in the fifth inning and tacking on four more runs in the sixth inning. Hits were 10-5 in favor of the victors.

Junior Leah Letuli (two doubles) led BV with three RBI while junior Kianna Balajadia-Brooks (four hits, double, triple, home run) had two RBI in support of senior starter Nat Gonzalez (six innings, three hits, nine strikeouts), who improved to 7-2 on the season with a 1.20 ERA.

Photos by Jon Bigornia

Metro Conference Spring Sports Standings

Baseball

Metro-Mesa League
League/Overall
Bonita Vista 3-1, 9-14
San Ysidro 2-2, 14-9
Eastlake 2-2, 12-8-1
Montgomery 1-3, 8-13

Metro-South Bay League
League/Overall
Mater Dei Catholic 6-2, 12-12
Otay Ranch 5-3, 17-7
Hilltop 4-4, 8-15
Olympian 3-5, 15-8-1
Sweetwater 2-6, 10-12

Metro-Pacific League
League/Overall
Chula Vista 4-1, 13-9-2
Mar Vista 4-1, 12-12
Southwest 2-3, 11-11-1
Castle Park 0-5, 6-16

Softball

Metro-Mesa League
League/Overall
Mater Dei Catholic 3-0, 20-5
Bonita Vista 1-1, 17-5
Otay Ranch 1-1, 11-9-1
Eastlake 0-3, 16-8-1

Metro-South Bay League
League/Overall
Olympian 2-0, 8-12-1
Hilltop 1-1, 12-11-1
Mar Vista 1-1, 7-13
Chula Vista 0-2, 9-7

Metro-Pacific League
League/Overall
Sweetwater 5-0, 16-2-1
Montgomery 4-2, 15-10
San Ysidro 4-2, 13-7
Southwest 1-5, 9-9
Castle Park 0-4, 0-8