Local scholastic baseball teams took to the diamond last week looking to improve on their records.
La Jolla High went 1-2 for the week, seeing its record sit at 15-6 overall, 3-2 in league play for head coach Gary Frank.
The Vikings dropped a tough 1-0 decision in extra innings to rival Mission Bay. Billy Bright hurled eight scoreless innings to keep La Jolla in the contest, while Trent Jemmett and Jim Filter each had two hits.
In another contest with the Bucs, La Jolla fell by a 6-1 score. Wyatt Hoff suffered his first defeat on the mound and La Jolla struggled to manufacture offense. Peter Sefton went 2-for-3 in a losing effort.
La Jolla bounced back to beat Cathedral 6-5 in nine innings to end the week. Ahead 3-1 in the first inning, pitcher Casey Richmond held the score there through the next five innings.
Down 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh, La Jolla rallied back as Jack Peterson walked and stole second to start the frame. Jemmett singled home Peterson to tie the game and send it to extra innings. Patrick Christensen held the Cathedral bats at bay in the eighth and ninth.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Jemmett doubled off the top of the left field wall. Bright and Filter walked to load the bases, then Sefton drew the bases loaded walk to bring home the winning run.
“Even though we only won one of the three games, we proved that we can compete with the best teams in the county,” Frank remarked. “We are receiving outstanding pitching and defense, and our offense has been executing well. For all of the teams that were expecting to get easy wins against us this year, they better think again, because we’re playing very good baseball and we can compete with anyone.”
La Jolla Country Day School split a pair of games last week for head coach John Edman.
The Torreys beat Canyon Crest 4-1 on a great outing on the mound by Kyle Reese. Two days later, LJCD fell to rival Bishop’s (see below).
“It (the Bishop’s game) was definitely our shakiest game of the year from a performance standpoint,” Edman noted.
The Bishop’s School came into play this week for head coach Al Gomez with a record of 7-10.
The Knights scored a 9-5 win over Army Navy as Raj Dharmapal went five innings and recorded 10 strikeouts. Nick Cox and Colin Walsh each hit home runs in the winning cause.
In its 12-4 win over LJCD, Bishop’s Tommy Wornham went six innings and got the win, also adding a home run.
“Our starting pitchers (Patrick Swan, Wornham and Dh0armapal) are doing a great job keeping us in ballgames,” Gomez said. “Our bats have come around in the last three days and we’ve been playing some exciting baseball. We still have a lot of work to do defensively, but overall things are moving in the right direction.”