With spring break going on at several area schools this time of year, a number of local scholastic baseball players are tuning up for their league seasons.
At La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) School, the Torreys and head coach John Edman traveled last week to Scottsdale, Ariz., for the Cleats National Invitational Tournament.
Last Monday night, the Torreys were pitted against Brophy Prep, one of the top teams in the country.
“We were a little shell-shocked after Brophy scored 12 in the first inning, including three homers,” Edman noted.
That one ended 21-0.
On Tuesday, LJCD played Wilson, from Portland, Ore., dropping a 6-2 decision. A day later, the Torreys met Smoky Hill, from Colorado, and junior Zack Kusnir threw a complete game, two-hit, shutout in very impressive fashion. He struck out eight in the contest to raise his record on the season to 2-0.
On Thursday, LJCD faced Brighton, also from Colorado. The Torreys had another great pitching performance, this time from sophomore Greg Wisenberg. He threw a complete game, winning 3-2, raising his record to 3-1.
Senior Michael Saleh earned All-Tournament team honors as he went 7-for-14 in the tournament. Sophomore Mike McKenna went 3-for-7 and was on base in seven of 11 plate appearances.
La Jolla High dropped a pair of games last week to fall to 6-3 on the season.
Clairemont struck for two runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to come from behind and beat the Vikings, 5-2.
Jack Peterson put La Jolla up 2-0 in the third with a two-run double, and Matt Wiegand had two hits in a losing cause. Robert Sprong took the loss in relief of Casey Richmond.
La Jolla lost its second game of the week to Kearny 6-5 in extra innings.
With the bases loaded in the third, Wiegand erased an early deficit by hitting a bases clearing three-run double. The Vikings pushed the lead to 4-1 behind an RBI single by Blake Shelburrne.
Tied at 4-4, Peter Sefton drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI double in the sixth inning. Kearny battled back to score unearned runs in the seventh and eighth innings to win the ball game.
“Defense and pitching have been the strengths of our team so far this year, and this week our defense wasn’t as strong as it’s been,” La Jolla head coach Gary Frank noted. “We allowed three unearned runs in each game this week. It is very difficult to be successful at this level when you give your opponent that many free runs. We are still off to a great start, we’re playing very good baseball so far, and I’m looking forward to starting league play this week.”
At The Bishop’s School, head coach Al Gomez and the Knights came into action this week with a record of 4-3.
Bishop’s most recent win was a 6-3 decision over Broomfield High of Colorado. Tommy Wornham pitched a complete game, no earned runs and seven strikeouts. He also went 2-for-3 with a homer. Alex Lazarides and Spencer Beers-Mulroy both added a pair of hits.
“The team has been playing better,” Gomez said. “Patrick Swan (2-0) and Tommy Wornham (2-0) have been doing an outstanding job as starters this year. Colin Walsh continues to have a strong offensive season.”