Mar Vista High, baseball’s road warriors as a No. 8 seed, made two weeks worth of travels worth it Thursday, scoring four runs in the third inning en route to a 7-3 win over South Bay rival Olympian to claim the San Diego Section Division III championship on a chilly evening at UC San Diego.
“We’ve come a long way,” said Mar Vista senior Jordan Mahan, who had a two-RBI double in the Mariners’ four-run rally and pitched three shutout innings to get the save. “A lot of us have been together since Little League. We’re a family. We wanted a CIF championship, and we did it as a team. My dream was to play in high school and win a (title).”
That dream nearly turned into a nightmare, however.
In the sixth inning, No. 2-seeded Olympian (15-17-1), loaded the bases with one out.
Xavier Zamora hit a grounder to short and Mar Vista got the lead runner at second. But the relay throw to first was wild and Olympian scored twice to make it 6-5.
However, the umpires ruled second baseman Tyler Kavanagh had been interfered with. So the runs came off the board, the inning was over and Mar Vista still led by three.
Mar Vista (23-11) added a run in the top of the seventh, and Mahan set down Olympian 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
This is the first CIF baseball championship for Mar Vista, which lost 5-4 to Olympian in the 2014 title game.
“We’re even,” said Mar Vista coach Bobby Rector, who played at Mar Vista, was coaching at Mar Vista in 2014 and had Olympian coach Steve Exum as a player.
“This team is a bunch of road dogs. As an eight seed, we knew we’d have to get it done on someone else’s territory. We were loose and relaxed.
“We came close last year, losing in the semis. And we have three water polo players who lost in the semis. So to get it done is pretty special.”
The Mariners will advance to the Southern California Regionals, and likely will be a road team when the Sunday pairings come out.
“Honestly, I don’t even know if my guys know we’re still playing,” Rector said.
Andrew Guevara had a big day for the Mariners, scoring three times. Benny Ramseier, Carlos Ibarra, JP Risley and Trevor Rector all had RBIs for Mar Vista.
Ivan Murillo drove in two of Olympian’s three runs while Niko Sesma drove in the other.
Eastlake High, last season’s Open Division baseball champion, added another trophy to its case, stealing a 7-6 win in an 11-inning epic from Grossmont in the San Diego Section Division I title game before an overflow crowd of more than 750 at UC San Diego.
The championship is the eighth in school history.
Tied at 6 since the seventh inning, Eastlake’s Daniel Duran singled to open the bottom of the 11th. He went second on a wild pitch, was bunted to third and scored the winning run on a wild pitch.
The No. 2-seeded Titans (21-10), who advance to the SoCal Regionals, had nine stolen bases in the game, five by catcher Nico Libed.
“What a great win for the kids,” said Eastlake coach Dave Gallegos. “We’re down three starters (shortstop Isaiah Lane, first baseman Ben Melendrez and left-handed pitcher Isaiah Martinez), and they still managed to get it done.
“We had to move our second baseman (Mora) to shortstop and start a JV kid (Jacob May) at second. But the guys stepped up, showed great heart … as did Grossmont.”
May had a three-run homer in the first inning for Eastlake.
Justin Tucker had a three-RBI game for No. 5-seeded Grossmont (15-18-1).
Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove, who played at Grossmont, was in attendance for most of the game.
Palo Verde Valley 11, Lincoln 4: Palo Verde Valley (11-21), which entered the 12-team playoff as the 10th seed, concluded an improbable postseason run by posting a convincing win over Lincoln (16-14), the No. 4 seed and the Central League champions.
It’s the first baseball championship for the Yellowjackets, who finished the season on a five-game winning streak, beating St. Joseph Academy, Coastal Academy, Liberty Charter and Calipatria before reaching the finals.
It isn’t, however, the school’s first title this school year, having won football and girls basketball championships.
The Yellowjackets scored three in the second inning, three in the third and put the game away with a five-run sixth. They had 11 hits and stole nine bases.
Palo Verde scored 50 runs in five playoff wins.
Every player in the Palo Verde lineup reached base and all scored at least one run. Seven players had RBIs with Ty Phipps leading the way with a two-RBI double in the third inning before the game got out of hand.
“This is pretty special,” said Palo Verde coach Jeff Phipps, whose son (JC) and nephew (Ty) are on the baseball team while his father and brother are assistant coaches. And his daughter (Hadley) was on the basketball team.
“We’re a small community, so these things mean a lot,” Jeff Phipps said. “We had a great run in the playoffs because we started making the routine plays and started throwing strikes.
“We tried to approach this as just another game, but it was bigger than that.”
Palo Verde now advances to the SoCal Regionals, which start play Tuesday with seedings Sunday afternoon.
Palo Verde is a 4½ drive from San Diego, so the team left campus at 7 a.m. for the 1 p.m. game.
Some of the parents made breakfast burritos for the players and the team stopped in El Centro to eat before continuing the drive to UCSD.
“Long day, long ride, but it was certainly worth it,” Phipps said.
The championship games are being played on Thursday and Friday because UCSD has a Senior Memorial Baseball Tournament on Sunday.
Today: UC San Diego, field located at 3432 Voigt Drive
Parking: Lot 701. Permits can be purchased at machines at the entrance of the Lot.
Tickets: $15 adults, $9 students and seniors. Admission is ticketless. No cash will be accepted at the venue.
(5) Fallbrook (19-14) vs. (2) Mission Bay (21-10)
After beating Morse in the first round, Fallbrook had to survive four elimination games, including beating No. 1-seeded Oceanside twice. Mission Bay cruised through its bracket, allowing 6 runs in three games.
Thursday’s elimination game: Fallbrook 3, Oceanside 2
(4) Canyon Crest Academy (23-8) vs. (2) Montgomery (21-7)
Canyon Crest went 3-0 in its bracket, surviving an 11-7 shootout with Francis Parker. Montgomery had an epic three-game series with Del Norte, finally winning an elimination game to advance.
Thursday’s elimination game: Montgomery 2, Del Norte 0
(2) La Costa Canyon (23-10) vs. (1) Granite Hills (24-5)
LCC was edged Madison in a slugfest, then — in elimination games — beat San Marcos, Madison and Torrey Pines twice to earn the right to face Granite Hills. Granite Hills beat Helix, Santana and Rancho Bernardo on its way to the title game.
Thursday’s elimination game: La Costa Canyon 7, Torrey Pines 2
11:49 p.m. May 26, 2022: This story was updated with the late Division I result.
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