Eastlake beats San Marcos, setting up clearer path to CIF baseball title

SAN MARCOS - Winning Friday - and avoiding having to play on the dreaded “Elimination Saturday” - was “humungous” for Eastlake High School’s baseball team, center fielder Joel Vargas said.

A sophomore, Vargas was in the middle of Eastlake’s offense, banging out three hits, scoring three times and driving in one as the Titans hung on to beat San Marcos 5-3 in the second round of the double-elimination Open Division playoffs.

The victory pushes Nio. 3-seeded Eastlake (23-6), winners of 13 in a row, into Tuesday’s semifinals.

San Marcos (19-11), seeded No. 2, must play an elimination game at 11 a.m. Saturday, hosting Point Loma. Point Loma, seeded No. 6, knocked defending champion Granite Hills out of the playoffs, beating the Eagles 10-1 Friday.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 1-seeded Cathedral Catholic beat Patrick Henry 13-3 to jump to Tuesday’s semifinals, while No. 5-seeded Henry travels to No. 4-seeded Rancho Bernardo on Saturday for an elimination game.

“Avoiding having to play Saturday keeps our pitching in order, gives us momentum,” Vargas said. “I’m so glad I was able to come through for the team. It was a big day for me, but also a big day for the team.”

Vargas singled in the first inning, scoring when Caleb Foss walked with the bases loaded.

Madox Ponsford homered in the bottom of the inning to get San Marcos even.

Vargas singled, stole second and scored on Foss’ RBI single in the third. With San Marcos second baseman Nolan Andrews crashing, Foss skipped the bunt and slashed a single to center.

But San Marcos tied it in the bottom of the inning on Oliver Vanderpool’s home run.

Vargas was in the middle of the action in the fourth when Eastlake scored three times. With two out, Hamza Hatahet singled and Erick Villeda walked. Vargas singled to score Hatahet and Omar Perez was hit by a pitch before JP Conero’s single scored two.

“This was a game where it was too bad someone had to lose,” said Eastlake coach Ramon Orozco, whose team left 12 runners on base, including seven in scoring position. “Believe me, San Marcos has good players. I thought the slash play was huge, but we just couldn’t deliver the knockout blow.

“In the end, though, it doesn’t matter if you leave 20 runners on base as long as you have one more run than they do in the end.”

Sophomore right-hander Lucas Yriqui pitched the first five innings for Eastlake, allowing three runs on four hits. He walked four and struck out nine in running his record to 5-1. He now has 88 strikeouts in 582/3 innings.

“Scoring five runs really helped me,” said Yriqui, who was the team’s closer last season.

Yriqui gave way to left-hander Jordan Gomez, who recorded the final six outs - one coming on a great catch by Villeda, who crashed into the fence in right field.

Vanderpool led off the San Marcos seventh with a single, bringing the tying run to the plate for a team that has scored 205 runs and hit 27 homers.

But Gomez got a flyout to right and a pair of groundouts to end the game.

“Conero had a big game,” Orozco said. “Yriqui was awesome. This was his best performance of the season. Now we get a day off and only need to win one more to get the the championship game. So, yes, I’d say this was a big win.”

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 8:24 PM.