LIONS TOURNAMENT AAA FINAL : After a 21-Year Break, Sweetwater Wins Title

Memories of the 1969 Sweetwater baseball team are growing more faint.

It had been 21 years since a high school baseball team from National City had won a tournament championship, the Lions unlimited title. But Sweetwater blew the dust from the archives Wednesday with a 7-5, come-from-behind victory over Granite Hills in the AAA division final of the Lions tournament.

“People think of Sweetwater as being so good in football and basketball, but no one ever thinks we do anything in baseball,” Sweetwater Coach Gene Alim said. “And if they do, they always remember the 1969 team. We talked about that this morning.”

The pep talk endured through the day. Sweetwater had a tough morning semifinal against Orange Glen but escaped with a 6-4 victory. Granite Hills advanced by beating San Diego, 3-1.

By the time they reached the final, both teams had well-used pitching staffs, and each needed four more pitchers before the final out.

“It came down to the survival of the fittest,” Granite Hills Coach Gordie Thompson said. “Both clubs had gotten 100% out of their kids by the time we got to this game.”

By the time the sixth rolled around, Sweetwater trailed, 5-3, and was scraping to survive. Averaging 10 hits a game, the Red Devils had just five after five innings.

Back-to-back singles by Mike Romero and Frank Castro were the start of a three-run, five-hit sixth for Sweetwater. The singles and two passed balls put runners on second and third with one out, and Juan Lopez lined one to center to score Romero and move Castro to third.

Granite Hills’ Shane Spencer had thrown seven innings in the morning but told Thompson he felt good and wanted to pitch. With runners on first and third, Spencer replaced Jason Gandy, who had given up seven hits in 3 1/3 innings.

But Spencer balked in Castro for the tying run, and the winning run came off a single to center field by Fernando Rodriguez, which scored Lopez from third to make it 6-5.

Granite Hills (12-5-1) threatened in the sixth, but third baseman Raul Sanchez, made a diving catch to end the inning, stranding a runner.

Sweetwater (14-4) also scored in the seventh on Sanchez’s RBI double to left center.

“We really wanted this tournament,” said Sanchez, who is batting .558. “This was important to us. We’ve had a couple of losses and we had something to prove to the rest of the county.”