SULTANS DELIVER AN EARLY MESSAGE

Overlooked in the preseason rankings, the Santana baseball team has played with a chip on its shoulder in the first six games.

“We knew we’d be pretty good, but didn’t get much credit early,” junior lefthander Tyler Glowacki said after throwing a five-hitter Saturday to beat Cathedral Catholic 6-1 and claim the Hilltop Lolita’s Tournament championship at Hilltop High.

“We were very prepared for the season. We very much wanted to do well in this tournament.

“It has a great history. And we beat some really good teams to get here.”

The Sultans (5-1) beat Hilltop, No. 5 Poway, No. 4 Cathedral Catholic and No. 9 La Costa Canyon to reach the title game.

Brandon Stevens greeted Glowacki with a leadoff triple and scored on Lewis Barnum’s sacrifice fly.

Cathedral Catholic (4-2) got just one runner to second base the rest of the game as the Sultans played solid defense behind Glowacki.

Shortstop Davin Burroughs displayed outstanding hands and range in recording four assists. He also singled in a pair of runs.

Santana left fielder Randy Smith went to the fence to haul in Zavien Watson’s deep drive. He later robbed Watson with a diving catch.

Catcher Tyler Fitzgerald did a great job backing up a base on an overthrow, hauled in a sky-high foul ball for the first out of the seventh and drove in three.

“We’ve really been playing well as a team,” Fitzgerald said. “We have a ‘we’re-notgoing-to-get-beat’ mindset.”

Cathedral lefty Gavin Nalu was betrayed by his defense as the Dons made five errors behind him, four in a three-run Santana second inning.

All four runs against him were unearned. He allowed just one hit over his last four innings.

“If you told me before the season that with as many new faces as we have, that we’d start 4-2 and play for a championship, I’d have been happy,” said Cathedral Catholic coach Gary Remiker. “But I’m not happy with the way we lost this game.

“Their pitcher did a great job. He tried to get us out with fastballs in the first inning, and we jumped on him.

“After that, he started changing speeds, locating his pitches, and got us to chase a lot of balls.”

In other tournament championship games Saturday:

Torrey Pines 7, Canyon Crest 1: The No. 7-ranked Falcons got a two-run homer from Max Isaacman and and two RBIS from Lucas Nelson. Eric Van Valkenburg threw five shutout innings with seven strikeouts to win the Kendra Couch Classic at Mt. Carmel.

Great Oak 8, Mission Hills 7: Great Oak scored twice in the bottom of the seventh after Mission Hills scored three times in the top of the inning to win the Pirate Classic. Quincy Scott drove in four runs for Mission Hills while Kaleb Hatch drove in two.

Eastlake 14, San Ysidro 3: No. 1-ranked Eastlake (6-0) remained unbeaten in winning the Aztec-foothiller title.