High school sports roundup: Spring seasons heading into the home stretch

Welcome to Lookout’s high school sports coverage. Thomas Frey, an alum of Cabrillo College who has covered high school sports locally, leads our coverage. His column appears weekly. We welcome your tips and stories — email thomas@lookoutlocal.com and news@lookoutlocal.com (with high school sports in the subject line).

Aptos High School alum Jared Koenig was called up to play for Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers and appeared in two games with the club before being sent back down to the minor leagues.

The 30-year-old reliever had been lights-out in AAA Nashville with a 1.93 earned run average when he earned the call-up. He appeared in two games and didn’t allow a single run as the Brewers hosted the San Diego Padres. In 3⅔ innings of work, he allowed just three baserunners. The left-hander also had two strikeouts, both against Fernando Tatis Jr., the 2021 National League home run champ.

Baseball

Scotts Valley High School won at The Kings Academy in nonleague action on Monday, 8-2. Seniors Corbin Giesen and Jack Parker combined for six strikeouts. Two more seniors in Quinn Turowski and Blake LaRiviere each had two hits.

The next day the Falcons narrowly won again, this time a 3-2 victory at Harbor High School. LaRiviere threw six scoreless innings while striking out 10 and Jack Sanders went 3-for-3.

Harbor got its revenge Friday as the Pirates won against Scotts Valley 8-7. Naiche Fish got the win for Harbor on the mound after striking out four hitters. Seniors Ferris Vitali and Jacob Fiorenza each had three hits for the Pirates while senior Carlos Cruz and junior Cole McCombs had two hits apiece. LaRiviere homered for the Falcons in the loss.

On Tuesday, St. Francis High School beat Monterey High School 5-1 in Pacific Coast Athletic League play. Senior Trey Silva was dominant on the mound, pitching six innings of one-run ball while allowing just two hits and striking out nine. Senior Junior Ibarra added three hits while junior Nash Horton had two. 

Aptos High School won at San Lorenzo Valley High School on Tuesday 6-3 as senior Jorden Espinoza struck out seven batters over four innings. Nate Garcia showed his power by hitting a home run for the Mariners while Isaiah Work and Cole McGillicuddy each had two hits. 

Santa Cruz High School topped Soquel High School 13-8 on Friday. Junior Morgan Toohey pitched 6⅔ innings and struck out four, earning the win. Cardinals senior Kaden Smith and sophomore Matteo Caltabiano each blasted home runs over the fence. Junior Gabe Virgallito hit a homer for the Knights. 

Softball

Aptos High School took down Soquel High School 15-1 on Tuesday. Senior pitcher Mileena Carbajal threw three innings without allowing a hit and struck out seven batters. Senior Kailani Aguayo and freshman Emma Burgueno each had four hits for the Mariners. Senior Raegan Fulton and junior Lilly McGee each tallied three. 

Scotts Valley High School recorded a 16-0 shutout over Santa Cruz High School on Tuesday. The Falcons did not allow a hit over the five innings with junior Sofia Seese and freshman Chloe Kent cooking in the circle, combining to strike out 11. Junior Gracie Delgado powered a home run over the fence. Delgado, Kent and juniors Taylor Wilson and Abby Howell all had multihit afternoons. 

The Falcons won again on Thursday, blanking Soquel High School 11-0. Seese and Kent, along with sophomore Jazzy Phillips, were contributors in the circle. Delgado, Kent and junior Jazmyn Doubek all had two hits. 

San Lorenzo Valley High School won at home against Harbor High School 13-0 in five innings on Tuesday. Freshman Grace Purtscher got the start for the Cougars and allowed just one hit over three innings. With the bat in her hands, she had two hits with a run batted in. 

Senior Ali Reger had three hits, one of which was a home run for San Lorenzo Valley. Senior Fallyn Lachmund, juniors Cheyenne Casey and Abigale Krepelka and sophomore Brooke Reed all reached base via hits multiple times.  

Reger helped the Cougars win again on Thursday, this time 19-0 over Santa Cruz High. Reger pitched three innings and allowed just one hit while Purtscher threw the final two frames. Seniors Olivia Renouf and Alyssa Struthers, juniors Angie Fulkerson and Cheyenne Owen and sophomore Sophia Sarmiento all had multiple hits and combined for seven RBIs.

Watsonville High School won versus King City High School 5-3 on Tuesday. Sophomore Amelia Martinez was brilliant. She pitched a complete game with 11 strikeouts and zero earned runs. In the batter’s box she had two hits with an RBI. Sophomore Mia Espinoza and seniors Julia Maldonado and Cameron Llamas all had two hits each. 

The ‘Catz came right back on Thursday and defeated Monte Vista Christian School 3-2. Martinez pitched another complete game, this time striking out 12. She also had an RBI hit swinging the bat. Llamas had another two-hit game which included a big double. 

Senior Mae Martin was also stellar for the Mustangs. In six innings she allowed just one earned run and walked just one batter. Martin and junior Kayla Fullalove-Silviera each had two hits for Monte Vista Christian. 

Girls beach volleyball

Harbor High School is now 5-0 in Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League play after defeating Scotts Valley High School 5-0 on Friday. Gwen Grigsby, Isla Johnson, Maren O’Farrell, Sabine Kemos, Grace Stryker, Tea Stockwell, Liberty Niesen, Dylan Schutz, Anika Dawson and Zoe Kemos got the wins for the Pirates.

Boys volleyball

Santa Cruz High School swept Scotts Valley High School 3-0. Senior Tim Pohlmann and junior Gammon Nilssen each had 11 kills. Junior Leo Sapunor had three blocks. Senior Chase Welle led the Falcons with nine kills. 

Boys tennis

Scotts Valley High School won 6-1 at Soquel High School on Tuesday. James Delaney, Henry Spitzer, Elijah Diamond, Jules Dudek, Aditya Hannon, Hunter Young and Gabriel Dodge picked up wins for the Falcons. Benja Bellitto got the victory for the Knights. 

The Falcons won again on Thursday against a shorthanded San Lorenzo Valley High School squad 7-0. Only two matches were played and Evan Anderson won the singles match while Jacob Bodeman and Lincoln Verinsky won a close doubles battle against Asher Schwarzbach and Jacob Aufdermeyer. 

Santa Cruz High School was led to a 7-0 victory over San Lorenzo Valley by Jeremy Arulanantham, Sammy Lambert, Tano Dawson, Kai Sheehan, Max Shumaker, Aidan Cromarty, Cal Pena, Aldon Fairchild, Cole Williams and Kaird Bisbee. 

Aptos High School won 7-0 against Harbor High School on Tuesday. The victories for the Mariners came from Ben Zaretsky, Jack Eldridge, Samar Awad, Jack Taylor and Nick Hambright. 

Aptos won again on Thursday 6-1 over Santa Cruz High. Arulanantham got the win for the Cardinals while Zaretsky, Eldridge, Awad, Taylor, Hambright, Koosha Safari, Sean Spencer, Adam Allen and Nico Salinas picked up victories for the Mariners.

Soquel won 6-1 over Harbor on Thursday. Jack Irving, Cian Francis, Adrian Hagedorn got the wins for Soquel while Angel Munoz picked up the victory for the Pirates. 

After finishing the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League season with identical records, Scotts Valley High School and Aptos High School battled to break the tie on Friday. Aptos led 3-1 after the four singles matches before closing it out in doubles play to win 4-3.

Safari, Zaretsky and John McGowan got the singles wins for Aptos while Hambright and Salinas had the doubles victory. For Scotts Valley, Diamond had the singles win and Dudek, Hannon, Dodge and Wesley Theisen picked up doubles wins for the Falcons.

Boys golf

Aptos High School defeated Harbor High School on Thursday as Tyler Grosdidier led the way. He had a 34 on the front nine. Luke Garvey, Andrew Cox, Shawn Roschelle and Ben Nowark helped the Mariners get the win. Kaden Dunton, Kyler Samples and Kaito Levy led the way for Harbor.

Boys swimming

Soquel High School won over San Lorenzo Valley High School on Friday as Austin Bar, Mateo Paiva, Justin Amaral, Oliver Santana, Hayes Pizzica, Mark Hanson and Jacob Henshaw earned wins.

Santa Cruz High School won over Scotts Valley High School. The Cardinals saw Beckett Owen, Elijah Smuga-Otto, Tate Wilson, Grant Atkinson, Robert Murphy, Xavier Hunter and Mau Mau Liang get wins.

Girls swimming

Soquel High School defeated San Lorenzo Valley High School on Friday. Kayla Matthies, Izzy Bridi Milligan, Autumn Anstey, Hazel Wilson and Makayla Hansen picked up wins for the Knights.

Santa Cruz High School won against Scotts Valley High School. Leading the way for the Cardinals were Vanessa Marroquin, Malia Cooper, Tessa Jeffries, Renata Nobile-Orozco, Guilia D’Souza, Amelie Lindberg, Chloe Biagini and Pippa Davis.

Annika Kiesby won for the Falcons.

This week in history

Santa Cruz High School alum Glenallen Hill had a day to remember 25 years ago as his Chicago Cubs topped the Cincinnati Reds 5-4. Hill came up in the second inning and hit a home run. Then in the sixth, with Sammy Sosa on base and the Cubs leading 3-2, Hill powered a line drive deep to left for his second homer of the day at Wrigley Field. Hill played in 1,162 games over a career that spanned from 1989-2001 with the Blue Jays, Indians, Cubs, Giants, Mariners, Yankees and Angels.

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