Baseball tournament ends with wins for Ramona High
By Bill Tamburrino
The Bulldog baseball team won two games in the North County Tournament to end the tournament part of the season. The Dawgs now enter Valley League action with an 8-5 record.
Kyle Wilson, who has pitched well but has not gotten much run support from the offense in his last two outings, picked up a win in relief with the aid of a ninth inning run as Ramona beat Torrey Pines 4-3 in a North County Tournament game. Wilson followed Rhett Williams who pitched well but left the game after seven innings with the score tied. Williams only allowed one earned run and scattered four hits as he struck out five. Wilson pitched two scoreless and hitless innings and fanned two.
The Bulldog offense got off to a slow start. Ramona trailed 1-0 after three innings. The Dawgs rallied for two runs in the fourth. Jordan Farhat started the rally with a double. Farhat scored on a Joel Mitchell sacrifice fly. Kevin Hagan reached on a shot down the third base line that was ruled an error and scored on a CJ Broussard RBI single.
Torrey Pines tied the score in the sixth and took a 3-2 lead in the seventh. With two down in the bottom of the seventh, Ramona was down to its last out. Gage Canning then delivered in the clutch. Canning hit a solo home run to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Two innings later Torrey Pines thought twice about pitching to Canning and walked the sophomore leadoff hitter. It was Hagan’s turn to deliver in the clutch as he ripped a game ending RBI double to drive in Canning with the winning run.
Broussard went the distance and limited Santa Fe Christian High School to three hits, all singles, and one earned run in a 6-2 victory. Broussard struck out nine and issued four walks.
Ramona’s offense ripped 10 hits in the game. Tyler Sherman had the big blast as he hit a solo home run and had a 2-for-4 outing. Canning also had a 2-for-4 outing with a double and scored two runs. Mitchell, Hagan, and Broussard stroked doubles. Brandon Fitzpatrick and Henry Flecker added singles to the cause.
“I like the way we are playing going into league. We have won four of our last five games against tough competition. We were in three reputable tournaments and had winning records in every tourney. I’ll take 8 and 5 against that kind of competition,” said Coach Dean Welch.
“The league is tough. Valley Center and Del Norte are playing well. Orange Glen is improved. Oceanside is always tough and Mission Vista is improving,” the coach said.
When asked about his team’s offense, which is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Welch said, “We are relatively young and we are making strides in our approaches at the plate. The talent is there and our mental approach is coming around. We have faced some pretty good pitching and good pitching usually prevails over young hitters.”