Seven small K-8 elementary schools and middle schools in northern San Diego County and southern Riverside County participate in athletic tournaments with a different school hosting a different sport each month, and the Hamilton Elementary School boys won the Warner Softball Tournament which took place April 28 in Warner Springs.
Five boys or co-ed teams participated along with three girls teams in the tournament played on the Warner Unified School District athletic fields, which are across State Route 79 from the elementary school, middle school, and high school campus. Each of the five boys or co-ed teams played each other once, and the Bobcats won all four games.
“I thought they played very well. They played some very good competition,” said Hamilton boys coach David Nelissen.
Hamilton, Cottonwood Elementary School, and Julian Middle School had both boys and girls teams. Vallecitos (Rainbow) and Warner had co-ed teams which played in the boys division.
The games lasted four innings or 30 minutes, although the full inning was allowed to be completed if the 30 minutes had elapsed. A team was limited to five runs in their batting half of the inning. The teams pitch to their own batters; schools could either utilize a student or a faculty member as the pitcher. Each team had ten players on the field.
The Hamilton boys began play with a 5-0 win over Vallecitos. All five of the runs were scored in the first inning.
“That was a good game,” Nelissen said.
“We did very well in the first inning,” Nelissen said. “We kind of trailed off, but we were able to hold them off for that win.”
The Bobcats’ second game was a 6-5 victory against Julian. That was the Timberwolves’ only boys loss of the tournament. “The game against Julian was very difficult,” Nelissen said.
Cottonwood was winless in the Cougars’ four boys games. Cottonwood scored a run in the first inning, but Hamilton prevailed by a 7-1 score in the matchup between the two Hemet Unified School District teams. “We were able to get a lot of outs in the infield and we were able to put the ball in the outfield,” Nelissen said.
The Hamilton boys concluded play with an 8-3 win over Warner. “We were just able to make some plays in the infield that kept them from scoring lots of runs,” Nelissen said.
Because the girls division had only three teams each school played two games against each opponent. Julian won all four games for the championship, Hamilton had a 2-2 record for second place, and Cottonwood lost all four girls contests.
“They did good,” said Hamilton girls coach Sterling Estrada. “The slow pitch, it was definitely a change, but we got our batting down.”
Hamilton and Julian opened girls play with a game which lasted three innings and ended as a 12-0 Timberwolves triumph. Hamilton then took a 5-0 victory over Cottonwood. The third girls game was a 10-0 Julian win against Cottonwood. Julian defeated Hamilton by a 12-3 score. The second game between Hamilton and Cottonwood was also a 5-0 Bobcats victory. Girls play concluded with Julian prevailing in a 15-0 game against Cottonwood.
The seven schools also include Pauma Elementary School and Borrego Springs Middle School. This academic year’s tournaments will conclude May 19 with a track and field meet hosted by Julian Middle School.
