High school sports roundup: Spring sports wrap up and all-league teams

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).

High school sports in Santa Cruz County have come to an end, but not before we got one more big postseason game between two schools that sit about 3 miles apart; Santa Cruz High School and Harbor High School.

The Cardinals and Pirates met in the Central Coast Section Division V baseball playoffs with a spot in the championship game on the line. Thanks to a four-run first inning by Santa Cruz, the Cardinals went on to win the game 4-2. Santa Cruz then lost to Capuchino High School in the division title game on Thursday.

Senior Colin Karwick pitched great for the Pirates, going six innings, including five straight shutout frames after the four-run first.

Santa Cruz was led on the mound by juniors Jason Graff and Owen Rogers. Graff allowed two runs in four innings before Rogers came out of the bullpen in relief starting in the fifth. Rogers was lights out and earned the save after throwing three scoreless frames. 

For the Cardinals, seniors Nick Bogomilsky, Kaden Smith, Triton Dew and Diego Grabiel and juniors Fernando Dacosta and Damos DeWorken crafted the hits to help Santa Cruz win the game. 

Harbor seniors Aiden Higgins and Pierce Fanara got key hits to keep the Pirates in the contest. 

Scotts Valley High School reached the CCS Division IV semifinals and fell to Homestead High School 3-0. The Falcons were led all season in the batter’s box by seniors Jack Sanders, Jack Abel, Quinn Turowski, Blake LaRiviere, juniors Kaleb Wing and Lukas Bloom and sophomore Jacob Pauka; Pauka led the team with an average of .407. LaRiviere along with seniors Colin Melrose and Corbin Giesen led the way on the mound for the Falcons.

California Interscholastic Federation state track & field championships

Soquel High School senior Jonelle Scott dominated in the pole vault and finished third in the state. In the final, she set a career best by jumping 12 feet, 9 inches to take the bronze. 

Santa Cruz High School was represented by two runners in the state championship. In the 3,200-meter race, junior Eli Fitchen-Young finished in 20th with a time of 9 minutes, 4.63 seconds. His time was just 12 seconds outside of the top 10 in the state.

Cardinals senior Luke Tanguay qualified for the 300-meter hurdles. He competed against 27 other hurdlers and the top nine would reach the final. He finished 16th, less than 1 second away from a finals spot.

All-league squads

BASEBALL

Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League Player of the Year 

Blake LaRiviere, Scotts Valley

Pitcher of the Year

Jorden Espinoza, Aptos

First team

Harbor: Cole McCombs, Carlos Cruz

Santa Cruz: Morgan Toohey, Damos DeWorken, Nick Bogomilsky, Kaden Smith

Aptos: Isaiah Work, Matt Hood, Cole McGillicuddy

San Lorenzo Valley: Jaden Shabry

Scotts Valley: Jack Sanders

SOFTBALL

SCCAL Player of the Year 

Taylor Wilson, Scotts Valley

Pitcher of the Year

Mileena Carbajal, Aptos

First team

Soquel: Emma Niizawa

Aptos: Bailey Fulton, Emma Burgueno

San Lorenzo Valley: Alyssa Struthers, Angie Fulkerson, Regan Fulton

Scotts Valley: Sofie Seese, Chloe Kent, Gracie Delgado

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

SCCAL first team

Harbor: Sabine Kemos, Maren O’Farrell, Gwen Grisby, Isla Johnson

Santa Cruz: Summer Pederson, Antonia Wilson, Shelby Leonardich, Natalie Monroe

Aptos: Kenzie Smith, Ella Dueck

Scotts Valley: Grace Emanuelson, Hayden Smith

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

SCCAL Player of the Year 

Gammon Nilssen, Santa Cruz

Freshman of the Year

Solomon Coleman, Mount Madonna

First team

Harbor: Abe Schmidt

Santa Cruz: Maverick Manor, Tim Pohlmann, Leo Sapunor, Julien Pally

Aptos: Jackson Bloom

Alumni

Cabrillo College baseball alum Brett de Geus has not allowed an earned run in his past five appearances for the Tacoma Rainiers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. It’s a span that dates to May 9. In that time he has pitched five innings, allowing just six hits without walking a batter. He reached the big leagues in 2021 with the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. This season, he has appeared in four games for the Mariners, allowing one earned run in 3⅓ innings between April 8 and 20. 

This week in history

From 2015-18, Mari Friedman of Santa Cruz High School ran races for the ages in the CIF track & field state championships. As a freshman, she finished 22nd in the 800 meters. As a sophomore in 2016, she improved to 11th. As a junior in the 2017 event, Friedman finished fourth with a career-best time of 2:09.08. As a senior she again finished in the top five, ending her career with a second consecutive fourth-place finish in the two-lap event. Friedman went on to compete at Oregon State University, where she reached the NCAA championships.

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