Notre Dame storms back to top Huntington Beach baseball in Boras Classic title game
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Things snowballed quickly Friday night for the Huntington Beach High baseball team.
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame certainly put on a rally worthy of a champion.
The Knights scored eight runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, stunning the Oilers.
Notre Dame‘s rally sealed an 8-6 victory over Huntington Beach in The Boras Classic South title game at JSerra.
Huntington Beach (17-7), which led 5-0 headed into the sixth inning, had a 15-game winning streak snapped.
The Oilers also were denied their second major tournament victory of the year, after capturing the National High School Invitational in North Carolina two weeks ago.
“I’ve been a part of that before, and it just feels like a train rolling on the tracks that you just can’t stop,” Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure said of Notre Dame’s massive sixth inning. “They had the momentum, and momentum in baseball is crazy. It feels like we’ve had it for weeks, until that last inning … It was pretty tough to watch, but you know, we’ve done that to other people. It’s just the way it is.”
Notre Dame, the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 1 which also beat the Oilers in last year’s Division 1 semifinals, improved to 20-2. Notre Dame was slated to play the Boras Classic North champion, Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman, for the Boras Classic championship on April 29, but the Boras Foundation announced the de-facto State Championship game will be cancelled in a statement released on Monday.
“Although the Boras Foundation required all teams participating in the Classic to make available a fifth game in case of reaching the State Championship, Notre Dame failed to do so in their season schedule as originally noted and communicated to the Boras Foundation last year when invitations were distributed. The Boras Foundation was notified early Monday morning that Notre Dame has forfeited their Boras Classic State game due to their lack of planning prior to the season beginning,” the statement said.
Huntington Beach sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler Bellerose, who earned tournament MVP honors in North Carolina, appeared ready to lead the Oilers to another big win. The Pepperdine commit pitched into the sixth Friday and allowed one earned run on two hits.
The Oilers scored three runs in the second, with Brian Trujillo knocking in two of them with a double to left. Huntington Beach added two more runs in the fourth, as Trujillo and Dean Carpentier both had run-scoring singles.
Bellerose came out with one out in the bottom of the sixth, after walking Levi Sterling. Huntington Beach relief pitcher Colin McNiven struck out the next batter for the second out, but then the onslaught began.
Greg Pierantoni, Kai Gonzaga, Dean West and Adam Shlesinger strung together four straight hits for Notre Dame. After an infield error kept the inning alive, Madden Ocko was hit by a pitch to force in another run and trim the lead to 5-4.
Shlesinger scored on a wild pitch, before Notre Dame catcher Colin Brown roped a single to center to give the Knights a 7-5 lead. They added the final run on another infield error, as Huntington Beach used four pitchers in the frame.
Medure said he was planning to use Carpentier to close the game out, but he was unavailable after injuring his side against the railing going for a foul ball earlier.
“That was the biggest team inning ever,” Brown said. “We had two outs and just found a way, trimmed away. Our entire team came through — hit by pitches, walks, singles. I mean, it was crazy. I’m so proud of us.”
“I had just flown out to the warning track earlier that inning. As I was walking off the field, the pitcher was chirping a little bit, so it felt good to get a little revenge.”
Ralph Velazquez doubled to the wall in center leading off the seventh for Huntington Beach, coming home when Trent Grindlinger grounded into a fielder’s choice. But Notre Dame relief pitcher John Trainor shut the door from there.
“Our season doesn’t end tonight, far from it,” Medure said after the game. “We’ve just got to start another streak. We have that kind of team, we have that kind of toughness. We were 2-6 and no one thought we were any good. Losing tonight just made us tougher. We’re going to get another opportunity at these guys [in CIF].”
The Oilers, who were trying to win the Boras Classic South for the second time, made the finals after picking up three wins earlier in the week. They blanked La Mirada 6-0 in the first round, got past Mater Dei 6-2 in the quarterfinals and topped San Bernardino Aquinas 4-1 in the semifinals.
Senior right-handed pitcher Brad Grindlinger earned the win in the semifinal, allowing one run in five innings of work. He pitched well under pressure, as Aquinas stranded nine runners in those five innings.
“When I make those big pitches, I just do it for the team,” said Grindlinger, adding that he enjoys being in the same battery with his younger brother, catcher Trent Grindlinger. “It’s the best. He reads me well. He’ll throw it a little bit harder at me if I’m throwing balls, he wakes me up. He’s amazing back there, I wouldn’t want to have anybody else back there.”
Wyatt Thomas got the save against Aquinas, pitching out of a bases-loaded situation in the seventh to earn a game-ending strikeout.
Aidan Espinoza was two for three with two runs scored and an RBI in the semifinal win, while Colby Turner and Trent Grindlinger added run-scoring singles.
Huntington Beach returned to Surf League action this week with a pair of games against Fountain Valley. The first-place Oilers fell to the Barons 9-8 on Wednesday. Fountain Valley will host Huntington Beach on Friday.
“We’ve just got to keep our heads straight and focus on one game at a time,” said Trujillo after the loss to Notre Dame on Friday. “We fight until the end all the time, but [Friday’s loss to Notre Dame] was an outcome that didn’t go our way. We’ll bounce back the next day.”
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