Harvard-Westlake hangs tough, beats Notre Dame in first of two
Harvard-Westlake alums and tailgaters filled the parking lot and stands surrounding O’Malley Family Field on Tuesday afternoon for the first of two games between Mission League competitors Harvard-Westlake and Notre Dame.
The Wolverines strung together two runs in the fifth inning and Bryce Rainer closed out the game with two scoreless innings for a 2-1 win to give the HarvardWestlake faithful what they came for — aside from free In-N-Out burgers provided by the school.
“The Harvard-WestlakeNotre Dame rivalry, battle is always epic and never disappoints,” Wolverines coach Jared Halpert said. “We hung on long enough to put some good at-bats together and the ball rolled our way at the end of the game.”
Three pitchers took to the mound in the game for the Wolverines (9-1-1 overall, 4-0-1 in Mission League) in Jackson Alex, Jake Chung and Rainer. Alex allowed two hits while recording two strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings, Chung allowed no hits and struck out four batters in 2 1/3 innings of work.
Rainer finished off the final two innings, giving up one hit and striking out three Notre Dame hitters. He also went 2 for 3 at the plate.
The senior and No. 39-ranked MLB high school prospect had a pivotal moment against Notre Dame’s Levi Sterling — the No. 40 MLB prospect — in the sixth inning. Sterling came up to bat with the bases loaded after previously being intentionally
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walked.
Rainer forced Sterling to ground out, ending the inning and throttling the momentum the Knights (5-5-1, 2-3-1) had gathered.
“Facing great competition is always fun,” Rainer said. “He’s a good hitter overall, he doesn’t really strike out too much. He’s not gonna give you an easy at-bat, he’s always going to fight.”
Nate Kugler threw 5 2/3 innings for Notre Dame, setting the tone for the game with three strikeouts while allowing one run. The Knights feed off of his 8890 mph velocity and also his toughness.
“He’s committed to not only his own craft but he’s the guy who wants to win for his team and wants to win for Notre Dame,” Knights co-head coach Nick LaFace said. “It’s kind of fitting that we have him roll out there for our first game. He epitomizes everything you want in a player and starting pitcher.”
Sterling took the lead offensively for the Knights and drove in Kai Gonzaga on an RBI single to score the first run of the game in the top of the third inning. Notre Dame allowed one hit while forcing three batters to hit flyouts in the fourth inning, but faltered in the following frame.
Harvard-Westlake’s Drew Rico was hit by a pitch to get on base. James Tronstein doubled to send Brooks Fischer, who was pinch running for Rico, home as Notre Dame failed to execute a double play. The Wolverines tacked on one more run on an RBI single from Cade Goldstein.
“We made some kind of uncharacteristic errors there,” LaFace said. “We’ve just gotta take care of the baseball and play good catch. It’s not like we were dead in the water.”
Notre Dame loaded the bases in the sixth inning but was unable to bring in a game-tying run.
The two teams will finish off their two-game series today at 3:30 p.m. at Notre Dame. Sterling is expected to start at pitcher for Notre Dame and Duncan Marsten will likely start for HarvardWestlake.
“It’s a talented group of coaches over there. It’s a really talented group of kids,” Halpert said. “The arms they threw today and the bats they had to face were evident in the score. We came out on the right side today.”
ANGELINA HABIS
School:
Sport: Basketball
Year: Freshman Noteworthy: Habis made an impact in her first year of varsity basketball. She scored a team-high 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds in the Wolverines’ win over Colfax in the CIF State Division II championship game. She averaged 10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game this season.