LA JOLLA — When you play for a championship, the season series is meaningless.
After losing three of four games to Crawford during the regular season, High Tech High-San Diego cashed in on nine Colts errors and beat Crawford 13-2 in the CIF San Diego Section Division 5 championship game at UC San Diego’s Triton Ballpark on Wednesday night.
The championship was the first for High Tech-San Diego.
The Storm (16-10) advances to the Southern California Regionals with pairings to be announced Sunday afternoon, with play starting Tuesday.
Crawford’s season ends at 15-15.
High Tech had been outscored 36-20 in four games with Crawford this season.
While High Tech banged out eight hits, all but one run was aided by Crawford errors as the Colts made multiple errors in three innings.
Neal Griswold started on the mound for High Tech and worked five innings and faced one batter in the sixth. He struck out 11 in a 108-pitch performance. He now has 60 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings this season.
Devon Garis fanned one in the sixth and two in the seventh as 13 Colts fanned.
“I’m really happy with the way I pitched,” Griswold said. “The strikeouts are good, but the guys played great defense behind me. Winning this feels great. We prepared hard to face Crawford.”
Griswold also scored four times, had two hits, including a triple, drove in three and walked twice. The majority of the High Tech team is made up of underclassmen, mainly sophomores and juniors.
“I feel great for our seniors,” said Griswold, a junior. “And hopefully this is just the start for us.”
