SAN DIEGO (KUSI) VIDEO LINK— Cathedral Catholic shut out Rancho Bernardo 3–0 to win the Lions Tournament championship.

The following article is from The San Diego Union Tribune, “Cathedral Catholic beats Rancho Bernardo for Lions Tournament title.”
By John Maffei | john.maffei@sduniontribune.com | San Diego Union-Tribune | PUBLISHED: April 2, 2026

This is the kind of matchup the 75th Lions Baseball Tournament has become known for.

Top-ranked Cathedral Catholic, hosting No. 2 Rancho Bernardo — the best-of-the-best in the CIF San Diego Section, teams that purposely don’t schedule each other — playing at the end of a four-game week with the Open Division championship on the line.

“And when two teams like this play, it usually comes down to one mistake,” said Cathedral Catholic coach Gary Remiker.

And that’s exactly what happened as the Dons scored three first-inning runs and got a dominant pitching performance from junior left-hander Cody Reynolds and beat Rancho Bernardo 3-0.

This is the second season in a row the Dons and Broncos have played for the Lions Tournament title with RB winning 5-3 last season.

The teams scrimmage each year and figure they’ll meet in a tournament or in the postseason, so don’t schedule each other.

Alex Harrington started the bottom of the first Thursday with a double and Trey Kotsay singled Harrington to third. After a pop out, Hunter Harrington hit a one-hop bolt at third baseman Cruz Partida, who made a great sprawling stop.

Partida scrambled to his feet, but passed on going to second for what could have been an inning-ending double play.

He didn’t go after Alex Harrington, who was rushing down the line toward home.

Partida, who later in the game made an equally nice play on Evan De Podesta’s smash, chose to go to first, overthrowing the first baseman as two runs scored.

Kaden Kuhn’s sacrifice fly scored the inning’s third run.

“I was really surprised he didn’t go after me,” Alex Harrington said. “Anything on the ground and I was going. The guy made a great play, and for a split second, we made eye contact. I was kind of the rabbit on the play, maybe distracted him.

“But one mistake was all it took.”

Rancho Bernardo pitched Noah Villa had little trouble with the Dons after that, retiring 10 in a row at one point and working out of a jam in the sixth.

But he was out-pitched by Reynolds, who turned in a complete-game, 84-pitch, one-hitter in running his record to 1-1 and lowering his ERA to 3.36.

“We knew at the start of the week,” Cody would pitch Thursday,” Remiker said. “Credit our other pitchers for throwing well during the week so we could stick with our plan.

“He’s our No. 4 starter and is going to be a stud for us next season.”

Reynolds walked one, struck out six, retiring the last 15 Broncos in a row and 21 of the last 22.

Hugo Gonzalez started the game for RB with a single. He walked in the third and was the only Bronco to reach base.

“My goal was to throw strikes, get ahead of the hitters,” Reynolds said just after being doused with ice water by his teammates.

“I had good command. Their hitters were very aggressive. It was a really good day.”

Asked if it was hard to wait four days for his turn to pitch, Reynolds said: “not really.”

“I’ll do anything the coaches ask me to do. I want to be a good teammate, so if I pitch on Monday or pitch on Thursday, I’m OK with it.”

Cathedral Catholic won Bracket C and defeated No. 5-ranked San Marcos (4-3), No. 7 Torrey Pines (9-0) and Simi Valley (8-6) to get to the title game.

Rancho Bernardo won Bracket B and beat No. 8 Patrick Henry (4-3), Elk Grove (9-5) and Sage Creek (11-2) to get to the championship game.

Over the last five seasons, RB leads the series 4-1, with all the games either in tournament play or the playoffs.

Cathedral Catholic (13-1) has won eight games in a row with the only loss 3-2 to Helix. Rancho Bernardo (11-2) had won six in a row, with the only loss 5-2 to Palm Desert.

How good are these teams?

Cathedral Catholic is ranked No. 9 in the state while RB is No. 22.

Cathedral Catholic has 11 college commits — brothers Alex and Hunter Harrington (Stanford), Shoei Darvish (UC San Diego), Jose Partida and Josh Priest (Arizona State), Kaden Kuhn (Cornell), Nick Ruder (University of Chicago), Jonas Nalu (Colorado Mines), Ty Daniels (Columbia), Xavier Nady (NYU) and Trey Kotsay (Princeton).

Rancho Bernardo has five college commits — Owen Glick and Caden Docken (UCSD), Hugo Gonzalez (Hawaii Pacific), Lucas Batrez (Northwestern) and Camden Rogers (Ottowa University in Arizona).

Brady Strachan is mulling offers from Michigan, UCLA, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Louisville, Ole Miss and Texas.RB came into the game hitting .347 as a team with 14 home runs.

The Broncos’ pitching staff had a 1.77 ERA.

Cathedral Catholic entered the contest hitting .342 with 13 home runs. The pitching staff had an ERA of 2.39.