High School Roundup : Helix Wins, 30-0, Finishes Unbeaten in League

The Helix High School baseball team left little doubt Wednesday in its effort to become the first team in the 27-year history of the Grossmont League to go undefeated through regular-season play.

The Highlanders, ranked No. 1 in the county, took advantage of 23 walks and 19 hits to rout host Valhalla, 30-0. Helix (23-2, 16-0) scored four runs in the first, nine in the second and a dozen in the fourth.

The 30 runs tied Helix with San Pasqual for the fifth-highest total in a single game in San Diego Section history.

Helix’s Rick Navarro threw his fifth shutout and finished the regular season 12-0 with a 1.39 earned run average and 126 strikeouts in 90 innings.

Danny Tiumalu had four hits and drove in seven runs, and Spike Mitchell drove in six runs, four on a grand slam in the second.

In other Grossmont League games:

Grossmont 8, Monte Vista 0--Mike Rendina hit his ninth homer of the season, a two-run shot in the sixth, as Grossmont (17-9, 12-4) clinched second place. Rendina finished the regular season with 35 RBIs, going 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs against Monte Vista. Monte Vista finished 12-15 and 5-11.

Santana 6, Mt. Miguel 3--Paul Newark went struck out eight and was 2 for 4 with an RBI to lead eight-ranked Santana (20-7, 11-5). Mt. Miguel (8-17, 7-9) scored its runs on bases-empty homers by Jesus Alvarez, Jeff Schmidtchen and Devin Rainer.

Briefly--El Capitan 5, El Cajon Valley 1.

CITY WESTERN LEAGUE

Mission Bay 8, Kearny 1--Brian Haire was 2 for 2 with 2 RBIs, and Scott Kuhl allowed just three hits as Mission Bay clinched its sixth consecutive league title. Kuhl walked six, but Mission Bay (22-3-1, 12-3) turned three double plays. Kearny (9-15-1, 5-10) scored its run in the top of the seventh.

Briefly--University of San Diego High School 12, La Jolla 6.

CITY CENTRAL LEAGUE

Crawford 7, San Diego 6 (9)--Jeff Wilcox’s two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth lifted Crawford (18-7, 13-2).

GIRLS’ SWIMMING

San Diego Section Preliminaries

Michelle Butcher of Granite Hills broke her own San Diego Section record in winning the 500-meter freestyle and also won the 200-meter individual medley to highlight the competition at Mt. Carmel High.

Butcher’s 500-meter time of 4 minutes 48.44 seconds was also good enough to qualify her for the Olympic trials in Austin, Tex., this August. Butcher set the section mark of 4:51.59 last Saturday in the Grossmont League finals.

Heather Merten of Mt. Carmel was also a double winner, in the 100- and 50-meter freestyles.

The section finals are Saturday at Mt. Carmel.