La Jolla High’s baseball team likes the look of the new season.
The Vikings are at 4-0 for the first time in over a decade after sweeping through three games in the Bully’s East Tournament last week. La Jolla was to continue play this week in the tourney.
The Vikings opened the week by traveling to Francis Parker and upsetting the Lancers, 9-4.
Junior catcher Zach Tonks put La Jolla up for good in the third inning with a two-out, two-run double over the left fielder’s head. David Harpster was 3-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Sophomore Patrick Christensen in his varsity debut pitched five innings and allowed only one run while striking out seven.
La Jolla next up sent 15 batters to the plate in a nine-run first inning to set the tone in an 18-1 romp over El Cajon Valley High School. Senior Kevin Jones was 2-for-3 with a double and four RBIs off the bench, and Peter Sefton went 2-for-3 with four runs scored and two RBIs.
The week was capped off with a 15-2 victory over Southwest High School. Harpster, Tonks, Trent Jemmett, Jack Peterson and Robert Sprong all had two hits and Sefton added four RBIs as the host Vikings coasted.
“It has been a great start of the season for us,” La Jolla High head coach Gary Frank said. “We’re doing well in all aspects of the game; we’re hitting well (.400 team average), pitching well (2.33 ERA), and fielding well (.953 fielding pct.).
“We still have room for improvement, but I couldn’t be more pleased with our first two weeks.”
La Jolla Country Day School has also jumped out to a 4-0 mark to start the season. The wins have come over Madison (8-3), Mt. Empire (16-0), Hoover (13-8) and Kearny (10-7 in 12 innings).
In the win over Madison, Greg Wisenberg tossed three innings, with Zack Kusnir throwing four innings in relief. John Kennedy went 3-for-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI, and Kyle Reese was 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
In shutting out Mt. Empire, John Hansbrough went 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, a triple, and five RBIs. Reese was also 4-for-4 with a triple, two runs and three RBIs, while Mike McKenna was 3-for-5 with a double, a leadoff homer, two runs and four RBIs.
In the win against Hoover, Wisenberg got the victory as Kusnir went 2-for-2 with a double and a homer, three runs and 5 RBIs.
Tied 3-3 with Kearny in extra innings, LJCD scored four runs in the 11th. Kusnir had the big blow with a three-run double.
After Kearny tied things again, the Torreys struck in the 12th inning with three more runs on consecutive two-out hits by McKenna, Zack Campbell, Wisenberg and Reese. Campbell closed things out in the bottom half of the inning to get the save, with Kusnir getting the win.
Finally, The Bishop’s School will carry a 2-2 record into its next contest on March 27.
The Knights opened the campaign with an 11-4 loss to rival La Jolla, then won a pair of games ” 23-2 over El Cajon Valley and 5-2 over Southwest High. Bishop’s dropped its last contest, an 11-3 decision to Mission Hills.
Bishop’s head coach Al Gomez credited the recent play of Tommy Wornham (hitting well, two homers), Colin Walsh (solid defense and hitting) and Patrick Swan (pitched five strong innings in win over Southwest).