Suffice to say The Coronado High School Baseball Team experienced a long week as they embarked upon their CIF Division III Playoff sojourn. A total of 12 teams make the playoffs, with the Top 4 teams being seeded while the other eight clubs, including the Islanders, were forced to go through a round of play-in games. To make it more complicated, the format is double elimination.

The Islanders started the week by hosting Steele Canyon, played the game in front of an overflow crowd at Strand Field, and came away with an 8-3 victory. Senior Geoff Thorne had a rather unique day as he was both the winning pitcher and the hitting hero for the Islanders.

Thorne yielded three earned runs during the five innings he pitched, while only one of the four hits earned by Steele Canyon could be described as ‘solid.’ Three of the hits fell when the Steele Canyon hitter was jammed and got a bloop, or "aluminum bat’ style hit. Offensively, Thorne had a single, a double, a triple, scored twice, stole a base and had five of Coronado’s seven runs batted in. All in all, a nice day’s work.

The Islanders trailed Steele Canyon 2-0 in the early going and then 3-2 entering the home half of the fifth inning. Paced by Thorne, the Islanders scored three times in both the fifth and sixth innings and won going away.

The victory set up the Coronado vs. USDHS game played at the University of San Diego Wednesday. Head Coach Sam Ceci knew the importance of this contest. "The key game of the week was against USDHS and Loren Murillo pitched a terrific game. We played well. Nobody really expected us to win that one and we won it convincingly. David West hit a three-run home run and J.T. Rogan was on base all the time. It was a good team effort."

Josh Okerman contributed a 2-4 day at the plate, Rogan scored twice and Murillo scattered six hits over seven innings on the mound. The senior hurler walked two and struck out three on the way to the Islanders 7-2 victory over the Dons. This victory earned Coronado a day off and a game at Mission Bay Friday.

The last time the two teams faced each other, the Islanders and sophomore Kevin Couture shut out the Buccaneers 7-0. Mission Bay has one of the perennially best baseball programs in San Diego County, regardless of division. They weren’t about to take a shutout from Coronado lightly. And they didn’t.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the readers of this column who reminded me that the standout baseball player from Mission Bay is Matt Bush and not Reggie Bush, who is the Helix High School alumnus and University of Southern California star football running back. Maybe that unintended slight on my part pushed Bush the baseball star over the top, or maybe the baseball gods were just having an off day from a Coronado perspective.

Bush is considered by most professional baseball scouts to be a first round selection in the coming Major League Baseball draft and one sports publication recently named Bush the California Baseball Player of the Year. And for good measure, Bush holds the CIF San Diego Section record base hits in a career.

Whatever his motivation, Bush threw a one-hit shutout against the Islanders and paced the Bucs to a 15-0 win. "We had no chance against Bush," Ceci said. "West had our only hit and it just got through the infield. Bush could have beaten a Major League team Friday. He was as good a high school pitcher as I have ever seen. He was throwing his fastball 94-95 miles an hour and was throwing his slider and curve for strikes. It was something to behold. If we’re going to lose, I don’t mind losing games like that."

The loss kicked the Islanders into an elimination game against Madison, a contest played at Hilltop High School. Coronado prevailed, this time by the score of 4-1, with Jacques Spitzer earning the victory and Kevin Couture the save. Spitzer gave up one earned run in 5.2 innings. Thorne, Spitzer and Max Weinfurtner all had multi-hit games, while Okerman had a solo homer.

At the end of a long week of baseball, Ceci was proud of his club. "Yesterday (Saturday) was important for me, to be able to bounce back the way we did. We’re a better team than Madison, but you have to get your mental state up for a game like that." Coronado is currently 19-12 this season.

The net result of the four games, during which the Islanders went 3-1 is another game at Mission Bay Tuesday afternoon at 4 pm. If the Islanders win, they will face Mission Bay yet again Thursday. Assuming they can pull off this difficult double, Coronado would face the winners of the lower half of the bracket, where University City and St. Augustine remain standing, in the CIF championship game.

Ceci was quick to note that three of the four remaining teams (Coronado, University City, and Mission Bay) all campaigned in the Western League this year. The CIF title game will be played at SDSU’s Tony Gwynn Stadium Saturday, June 5 at 1 pm.

CHS Track and Field Head Coach George Green checks in with the results from the CIF San Diego Section track meet. "It’s very tough to get into the ‘A’ heat of the CIF Track and Field finals and even tougher to advance to the California State meet.

After the smoke had cleared from the various league meets around the county, and after the CIF preliminary event was held, only nine athletes from Division I and nine from Division II advanced to the CIF Finals in each event. The Top 9 athletes in each event, irrespective of the size of the school they represent, are placed in the ‘A’ heat, with the remaining nine seeded into the ‘B’ heat.

Then, only the Top 3 finishers in the ‘A’ heat are eligible to advance to the State meet. The ’B’ heat exists to select divisional champions for both individuals and teams. The competitors’ order of finish is determined by combining the results of both heats.

For Coronado, the ‘A’ heat finalists were Katherine Wingert in the 1,600-meter run, Jamie Klages and Adam Munns in the high jump, Reid McLean in the 300-meter hurdles, and Wingert and Beth Wittry in the 800-meter run. Jake Ruzevick missed the ‘A’ heat in the 1,600, and ran as the top seed in the ‘B’ heat. McLean qualified in the ‘B’ heat of the long jump.

The county-wide field is very deep this year in the Girls 1,600-meter run. Wingert’s race was won by San Pasqual’s Claire Rethmeier in the time of 4:52.42, with the Top 4 finishers all under the 5-minute mark. Her sixth place finish in 5:08.88 placed her in second place in Division II behind University City’s Rebecca Bostwick, who was fourth overall in 4:59.39. Katherine also finished fifth in the 800 meters in 2:19.63, good for third place among Division II finishers. Wittry finished in eighth place in Division II, with the time of 2:31.45.

In the Girls high jump, after all attempts were completed at 5 feet, 4 inches, the only girls remaining were Klages, Mt. Carmel’s Lindsey Whetstine and Eastlake’s Esha McDowell. Therefore, the state meet qualifiers were identified before the individual champions were determined. McDowell failed to clear 5-6, so by mutual agreement between Klages and Whetstine, the bar was set at 5 feet, 7.25 inches. Klages’ best effort this year is 5-7, with Whetstine right behind at 5-6.25. This was for bragging rights for the section’s best mark of the year. Klages had already won the Division II title and this time Whetstine came out on top. They’ll meet again this Friday at the state meet.

The Boys high jump was won by Serra’s Desi Burt at 6 feet, 8 inches, with two others tied at 6-6. Adam Munn’s effort of 6-4 wasn’t enough to advance to the state meet this year, but it placed him in third place in Division II.

Ruzevick set a personal best mark in the 1,600-meter run while winning the ‘B’ heat in 4:23.21 and placing him second in Division II behind University City’s Riley Booker, who ran a 4:22.52 in the ‘A’ heat. When ranked with the 18 competitors in the event, Jake’s ran the sixth fastest overall time from among a very strong group of runners.

Junior Reid McLean has been looking for his best event in track and field for the last 3 years. He may have finally found it in the 300-meter hurdles. After running in the low 40 second range all year, he made a breakthrough at the CIF preliminary event, to qualify as the third seed in the ‘A’ heat in the time of 39.50.

The finals promised to be one of the most competitive races of the day, with five runners in the 39’s and 4 more in the low 40’s. After crashing their way over six of the 8 hurdles, it was still anyone’s race with less than 100 meters to go.

McLean pulled away to win in 38.92 over top seed Kevin Ott-Wright from Scripps Ranch, who ran 39.22. Reid’s time is a new school record and is the only San Diego Section mark under 39 seconds this year. He’ll go to the State Meet this Friday as the top San Diego seed and of course won the Division II title in this event. Earlier in the day, he long jumped 21 feet, 6.5 inches to finish in third place in Division II.

When last we left the CHS Boys Volleyball Team, they were headed into the CIF Division III playoffs against Christian High School. Unfortunately the Patriots ended the Islanders’ season by the scores of 25-16, 25-13 and 25-15. The Boys ended their season with an overall mark of 9-11, which may be misleading.

Over a two-day stretch in March, the team competed in the La Jolla Tournament and lost five consecutive matches to far larger schools, including Torrey Pines, Orange Glen, Castle Park, Garfield and Chula Vista. Still, their average game score was 25-19, which would indicate that the contests were competitive.

Then came the Islanders’ undefeated run through the Harbor League, which earned Coronado the conference title. They finished the season with a loss to Bishop’s (25-22, 25-14, and 25-21), a tough loss to Point Loma (25-7, 25-23, 15-25, 13-25, and 13-15).

The Coronado High School Sailing Team held their banquet appropriately enough at the Coronado Yacht Club and the award winners as announced by Head Coach Willem Van Waay included: Most Improved Crew – Lauren Paquin; Most Improved Skipper – Katie Eckert; Top Gun – Blaire Herron; The ‘Jimmer’ (upholds the high standards of a crew member) - Heather Miller; and The ‘Sam’ (courage and commitment to the team) - Kelly Kephart.