Monte Vista Pulls Off Upset to Win AAA Division

EL CAJON —  Capping a week of upsets by the Monte Vista High School baseball team, Monarch Coach Mark Smelko provided yet another one Wednesday after his team won the AAA Division championship in the 42nd annual Lions/Mike Morrow Tournament.

For a moment, brief as it was, Smelko was speechless.

His team, which entered the tournament with a 6-7-1 record, had just edged Castle Park, 6-5.

It was the Monarchs’ fifth consecutive victory in the tournament against five teams with better records. It was the Monarchs’ firstLions crown. It was a game that saw Castle Park strand 11 base runners. It was a tournament that saw Smelko use seven different pitchers, including four in the final.

It was . . .

“I can’t explain it to you,” Smelko finally said. “I really can’t. The breaks just fell our way.”

Pitcher Jeremy Laub picked up two saves Wednesday, including one in the Monarchs’ 7-3 semifinal victory over Sweetwater in the morning. It was his second double-save day this season, but he couldn’t save Smelko in the explanation department.

“Coming into this tournament, we were 6-7-1, and nobody thought we had a chance,” said Laub, who included himself. “Coming in, I didn’t ever think about this.”

Finally, there was Manny Lutz, the Monarchs’ cleanup hitter who had two hits, scored two runs and drove in another. Lutz summarized things in four simple words.

“We hung in there.”

After beating Fallbrook, 11-6, in the morning, Castle Park had plenty of chances to bury Monte Vista in the final, but the Trojans (8-6) allowed two unearned runs and stranded multiple runners in the first, second (bases loaded), fourth and seventh innings.

The bottom of the seventh provided an indication of what kind of game this was. It began innocently with a fly out off winning pitcher Lucas Balsley (2-1), but featured: two runs, four singles (one being an infield hit), a walk, a passed ball, a wild pitch, a pitching change, an error, two base-running blunders, an outfield assist, and, finally, a pop up to short on a 3-and-1 count to end the game.

Afterward, Castle Park departed by car on its annual trip to Las Vegas for today’s Bishop Gorman Gael Classic. Before he left, however, Castle Park Coach Bob Korzep offered his summation.

“You see enough high school baseball games, and you realize very few games are ever won,” he said. “Most are lost. We lost today.”