Dewey J. (Mike) Morrow, a University of California at Berkeley graduate from Montana, returned from the war to San Diego High and coached the Hilltoppers to his eighth CIF Southern Section championship in Morrow’s 16 seasons and first since 1939.
Writer Norrie West of the Evening Tribune said of Morrow’s return:
“Not a soul will deny that Mike has baseball ‘know-how’, but fundamentally it’s the never-say-die spirit this lean master infuses into his team that seems to give them that extra something.”
West was fond of repeating one of Morrow’s favorite maxims. “Every afternoon in Balboa Stadium you can hear Mike bawl in his foghorn voice: “’Run it out—maybe he’ll throw it away!’”
The Hilltoppers always got the message behind the words.
Morrow’s ace lefthanded pitcher Gene Richardson, who posted a 14-1 record, was the Southern Section player of the year.
Catcher Jerry Dahms, who also doubled as a shot putter on Bill Patten’s track team, led the Hillers with a .376 batting average.
3/6/46
The Martinez All-Stars defeated pitcher Gene Richardson and San Diego High, 3-2, in Balboa Stadium. The win evened the series between the Hillers and former preps from the area at two wins apiece.
3/8/46
Bill Dugan homered and San Diego won a practice game at Point Loma, 10-4.
3/12/46
Ragged was the word for these preseason games. Point Loma won, 15-11, at La Jolla as the teams combined for 16 errors. Eight errors were recorded in St. Augustine’s 7-6 loss at Grossmont.
3/14/46
The Point Loma varsity topped the visiting San Diego junior varsity, 11-5, behind the four-hit pitching of Joe Medina. It was the Hilltopper youngsters’ first game.
3/15/46
La Jolla’s Bud Relyea gave up an unearned run in the second inning and hurled a no-hitter in a 9-1 victory over guest St. Augustine.
3/20/46
San Diego defeated the Vick’s Nationals team, 10-8. Point Loma rapped St. Augustine, 12-3, and Sweetwater knocked off El Centro Central, 14-3.
3/22/46
Joe Medina scattered three hits and survived five errors, and Point Loma won a six-inning, nonleague game, 8-6, against Victory League opponent and host Sweetwater.
3/27/46
La Jolla stopped host Escondido on three hits, 7-5, behind the pitching of Bud Relyea, Cyril Guthridge, and Dan Butcher.
3/28/46
Pitchers John Brown, Jerry Dahms, and Pete Corona combined to limit visiting Sweetwater to three hits in San Diego’s 8-3 victory.
–Hoover’s Ken Clary struck out 14 and set down visiting Point Loma and Pointers ace Joe Medina, 4-2.
–Grossmont at La Jolla was postponed because of wet grounds.
4/4/46
Hoover collected three hits and Grossmont botched its way to seven errors and dropped a 10-4 decision to the visiting Cardinals.
–San Diego and Hoover remained the Victory’s League’s only undefeated teams, each 2-0, when the Hilltoppers rocked La Jolla, 14-3.
The Hillers piled 14 hits and John Brown cuffed the Vikings on two hits.
–Joe Medina struck out 14 batters and Point Loma, with a four-run eighth inning, edged Sweetwater, 5-4.
4/5/46
Gene Richardson gave up four hits and pitched San Diego High to a 6-2 win at Fullerton. The Hillers’ John Verdusco doubled and singled twice.
–Hoover lost the first of a three-game series at Santa Barbara, 5-3.
4/6/46
Hoover collected 19 hits and restricted Santa Barbara to six as the Cardinals swept a double header, 8-2, and 15-8.
John Hedquist gave up three hits in the opener and contributed with a two-run home run. Ken Clary and Roy
Wayne each added a triple.
Clary allowed only three hits and collected three hits in the nightcap, but did not receive sterling defense. The Cardinals threatened to compromise things with four errors.
4/11/46
Joe Correia’s three-run home run and solo shot by Joe Medina presented Point Loma a 4-0 lead in the first two innings at San Diego.
The Hillers erupted for eight runs in the third inning and rolled, 18-4.
–Hoover slugged 16 hits and drubbed La Jolla, 17-2, at Horace Mann playground.
–Tony Castro homered and pitched Sweetwater to a 7-2 victory over Grossmont’s Art Preston.
4/15/46
San Diego, Hoover, and Point Loma represented the area in the 13th Pomona 20-30 Club tournament.
Coach Mike Morrow’s top-seed Hilltoppers, winners in six of the nine previous years in which San Diego High teams entered, were in the 32-team field for the first time since 1941.
—San Diego defeated Anaheim, 9-4, in the morning and Pasadena, 7-6, in the afternoon. Hoover edged Santa Monica, 5-4, and returned with a 4-2 win over Point Loma in a contest that went two extra innings.
(Point Loma had won its first-round game, 10-8, over Azusa Citrus).
—Ken Clary and Jack McColl homered in Hoover’s opener. Winning relief pitcher Harvey Jones drove in Roy Wayne with the winning run and the Cardinals clinched the second game with a successful squeeze play in the ninth inning.
4/16/46
Hoover got four-hit, shutout pitching from John Hedquist in a 5-0 quarterfinals victory over Covina and earned a trip to the Pomona 20-30 Club finals with a 7-4 triumph over Santa Barbara.
San Diego was eliminated in the morning quarterfinals by El Monte, 3-1. The Lions lost in the semifinals, 4-0, to Orange, which qualified to meet Hoover.
—La Jolla’s Bud Relyea struck out 18 and allowed only a scratch single in a 7-0 home victory over Escondido.
4/17/46
Ken Clary scattered six hits and weathered a three-run, ninth-inning by Orange as Hoover claimed the Pomona 20-30 Club championship, 5-3.
Roy Wayne’s 2-for-5 performance at the plate, led the Cardinals, who took a 2-0 lead in the third inning and scored single runs in the fifth, seventh, and eighth.
4/23/46
They would play for the Victory League championship later in the week, but Hoover and San Diego warmed up, the Cavers winning a nonleague contest in Balboa Stadium, 16-9.
Bobby King’s double with the bases loaded helped the Hillers to a 5-0 lead in the third inning. Hoover scored six in the eighth inning after reliever Pete Corona walked six batters. The Hillers recovered with five in the bottom of the eighth.
4/25/46
Anticipation resulted in the Hoover-San Diego Victory League title decider being switched to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot diamond.
–Joe Correia was 3 for 4 and hit a home run in Point Loma’s 11-6 victory against the Hoover junior varsity in a game slowed by 13 combined errors.
4/26/46
Gene Richardson did not allow a runner to reach third base and San Diego clinched a tie for the Victory League championship, 4-0, over Hoover at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
Ken Clary gave up six hits including a two-run double to Chuck San Fillippo in the second inning and John Brown’s run-scoring triple that followed Fred Flores’ single in the eighth.
—Ralph Silva’s triple scored pitcher Don Larsen with the winning run as Point Loma beat Grossmont, 6-5, in 10 innings.
—Visiting La Jolla’s Bud Relyea gave up only three hits, but Sweetwater’s Tony Castro allowed two and the Red Devils earned a 4-0 win.
4/29/46
Paul Kaneyuki’s triple followed Joe Henning’s single and Point Loma outlasted the San Diego junior varsity, 4-3, in 15 innings on the Pointers’ field.
4/30/46
Ken Clary pitched and hit Hoover to a 5-3 win over San Diego in Balboa Stadium. Clary kept the Hilltoppers at a distance for the first five innings, then moved to right field and homered, finishing the day 3 for 4.
San Diego won the three-game series, 2 games to 1, after outscoring the Cardinals, 16-9, and 4-0, with only the shutout counting in Victory League standings.
–Grossmont’s Bobby Lamp tripled in 2 runs in the seventh inning and pitched the Foothillers to a 3-2 win over visiting Calexico.
5/1/46
San Diego won the Victory League championship on the road, with Gene Richardson outpitching Grossmont’s Art Preston, 5-4.
Richardson’s triple climaxed a five-run fifth inning that overcame the Foothillers’ four-run lead.
Preston gave up only three hits but coach John Hancock’s team committed five errors.
5/2/46
—Hoover, Sweetwater, and Point Loma tied for second behind San Diego in the Victory League final standings, each with a 3-2 record.
—Sweetwater surprised Hoover, 9-7, at Horace Mann Playground, and Point Loma, behind Don Larsen’s two-hit pitching, won at La Jolla, 27-2…yes, 27-2.
VICTORY LEAGUE STANDINGS
| TEAM | W-L | PCT. | GAMES BEHIND |
| San Diego | 5-0 | 1.000 | — |
| Point Loma | 3-2 | .600 | 2 |
| Sweetwater | 3-2 | .600 | 2 |
| Hoover | 3-2 | .600 | 2 |
| Grossmont | 1-4 | .200 | 4 |
| La Jolla | 0-5 | .000 | 5 |
5/4/46
John Verdusco hit a grand slam home run and Bobby King a solo shot leading San Diego to a 12-5 win over Long Beach Wilson in Balboa Stadium.
John Brown pitched the first seven innings and Gene Richardson the final two for the Hillers.
5/8/46
Brown Military was not a welcome guest at Julian, where the Cadets hammered the Eagles, 35-6, in a Southern Section Group 12 game mercifully called after seven innings.
Brown’s score almost doubled its hits, 18. Julian committed five errors and two pitchers walked many, unnumbered amount of batters.
5/9/46
As part of a four-day road soiree leading to a three-game series in Tucson, the Hillers opened Southern California playoff competition with a 24-3 win at El Centro Central.
5/10/46
An overflow crowd estimated at 3,000 persons saw Tucson High beat John Brown and the San Diego Hilltoppers, 3-0, in the Arizona city.
Brown gave up only four hits but walked seven as the Bears scored single runs in the first, second, and eighth innings.
5/11/46
Gene Richardson walked no one, struck out 13, and gave up four hits as San Diego evened its series in Tucson, 7-1, and then completed a double header sweep in the afternoon, 10-6.
The defeats reportedly were the first for the Bears in three years.
Charles Norman was the winning pitcher and catcher Jerry Dahms and first baseman John Brown each was 3 for 5.
5/16/46
San Diego’s second-round CIF playoff with Orange was moved to Lane Field so that a Reserve Officer Training Corps review could be conducted in Balboa Stadium.
5/17/46
Gene Richardson struck out 19 and Richardson and eight of his teammates contributed at least one hit in a 12-hit attack as San Diego blanked the Orange Panthers, 6-0, in a second-round playoff.
Richardson, John Brown, and John Verdusco each had two hits.
5/24/46
The Hillers moved on to the CIF finals with a 9-2 win over Pasadena at Lane Field. The Bullpups entered the game with a 16-2 record and were led by future major league outfielder and San Diego Padres manager Dick Williams.
Gene Richardson struck out 16 and added two hits and scored two runs as San Diego overcame a 2-0 Pasadena lead with three runs in the fifth inning and followed with two each in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.
5/29/46
Inglewood, 20-8 coming in, was no match for San Diego’s 17-hit attack in an 18-0 rout of the Sentinels in the championship game at Lane Field.
The Hilltoppers scored 4 runs in the third inning and seven in the fourth.
An infield single by Teruto Kaneka in the seventh inning was the only base hit allowed by Gene Richardson, who struck out 19.
The Hillers rapped 15 singles and two doubles (John Verdusco, Charles Norman) and concluded their season with a 24-7 record.
Fred Pierce was 4 for 5 and Charlie Coffee 3 for 3 to lead the San Diego attack.
San Diego batsmen, when the game was out of hand, switched. Righthanded hitters became lefthanded hitters and vice versa.
