Harvard-Westlake wins thriller for 2013 CIF Southern Section baseball title

LOS ANGELES -- Jack Flaherty can claim he won the CIF Southern Section Division 1 title Friday with seven innings of stellar pitching at Dodger Stadium and an RBI single.

Jackson Grayson can claim he made the game's biggest play with one air-to-air throw - and he played just one half of an inning.

Outstanding pitching and defense on both sides was the common theme, but what separated Harvard-Westlake (Studio City) and Marina (Huntington Beach) in the Dodger Stadium nightcap was seized opportunities and unseized ones. Harvard-Westlake made the big plays and the Vikings didn't in a thrilling 1-0 Harvard-Westlake victory.

Protecting a 1-0 lead in the top of the seventh, Flaherty was in a small amount of trouble after Tyler Mildenberg led off with a single up the middle and Landon Marshall sacrificed him to second. Grant Mayeaux then rapped a line-drive single to left and Marina coach Bob Marshall made the split-second decision to send Mildenberg home.

Grayson turned that choice into a bad one with a perfect throw to Arden Pabst that was there waiting for Mildenberg as he tried to slide through a wall-like Pabst.

Turns out a small role player played a huge role. Grayson came in for defensive purposes in the top of the seventh, something he commonly does.

"I knew that Jack was going to need a play behind him. I had practiced all year getting that throw perfect. I knew I had him the second he hit the ball. I got a good hop and came through it and got a nice gather and made a good throw," said Grayson, a sophomore. "I usually go air-to-air a lot and they yell at me that it's quicker to bounce it and go through the cutoff man. I knew in that situation I needed to go air-to-air."

That was the second out of the inning. Things got a little more interesting when Austin Moore singled, but Flaherty secured the title by getting pinch-hitter Bryan Perez to bounce into a force out at second.

"A team effort. We grinded our way through it. It wasn't pretty but it was kind of beautiful," said Wolverines coach Matt LaCour. "Six years of blood, sweat and tears, going through some really difficult moments, and having it all in the end pay off for these kids and coaches, it's pure satisfaction and joy. It can't get much better than this."

The play at the plate was a case of a gamble that just didn't pay off for Marina. A high-risk, high-reward scenario.

But what also felled the Vikings was a missed chance to score in the third inning.

Mayeaux led off with a liner over third base and Austin Moore followed that single with a single of his when his sacrifice bunt wasn't thrown to first quickly enough. A rally was developing, and the sacrifice bunt was on again. But semifinals hero Max Willingham popped up to the catcher. A walk to Jake Bauers loaded the bases with one out, but Flaherty wiggled out of it by getting a foul out and a strikeout with a breaking ball.

"We didn't capitalize that inning. That was a key point where we should have put runs on the board but we didn't get it done," Marshall said.

The play at the plate in the seventh was a much different situation.

"With one out I was going to send (Mildenburg). Tyler is one of my fastest guys. (Grayson) made a great throw. It was money. A little bit left we score, a little bit right or one hop we score. They made clutch plays, and you tip your hat. We were gonna take a gamble there to put a run on the board. You can second guess baseball all day. You've got to go with your gut feeling. You've got to make that split-second decision."

The only run of the game scored in the third when Casey Rosenfeld led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Andrew Wallach.  Rosenfeld stole third on a strikeout, and came home to score the game's only run on a ball that Flaherty smashed directly to shortstop. It was an in-between play where Mayeaux didn't know whether to charge the blast to catch on the fly or retreat at wait for a hop. The ball hit the ground and bounced over his glove for what ended up being the game-winning single.

Flaherty struck out eight in the complete game, yielding six hits and one walk. The junior moved his record to 13-0 and finished the campaign with nine complete games in a season that featured quite a few big-name opponents.

"I was feeling calm, just go throw strikes and not do too much. We were really calm, we've been loose all year," he said. "Throwing strikes, it worked all year and benefited me again."

Austin Olivas was also good on the mound, just not as good as Flaherty. The Marina starter went five innings, striking out three to go with six hits allowed.

The victory for Harvard-Westlake secures the No. 1 spot in the MaxPreps Southern California Baseball Rankings. Continue reading to see Divisions 2 and 3.


Division 2
Cypress 5, Temecula Valley (Temecula) 0

Kevin Lillicrop is not a big young man. He is a big-time, big-game pitcher.

The senior hurler was nothing short of magnificent on the mound for the Centurions. Through 13 hitters, in fact, he was called perfect.

Lillicrop's perfect game bid was thwarted in the top of the fifth on a Mitch Kemp single through the left side but it was hardly a problem, as he finished the game allowing three hits and no walks. He never had to pitch with multiple runners on base, and his offense came through with a trio of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to avoid any questions from the coaching staff about whether he should finish the game.

“I knew it was my game to finish. There was no talk. They knew it just as well as I did," said Lillicrop, whose perfect curveball froze Bruce Young for the final out of the game. “There’s no better way to end it.”

Sure, Lillicrop was dazzling on the mound. A lot of that had to do with his defense, though. The lauded Centurions infield was slick, consistent and had an unblemished day. Of the 21 outs, 12 came on grounders and four on strikeouts.

"I knew I could throw anything up there and my defense had my back," said Lillicrop, who touted his changeup. "That’s how we’ve done it all season. I keep it low and let them get the outs."

Cypress got on the board in the bottom of the first and may have been able to get more, but a strange occurrence prevented that. Steven Andrade led off by reaching on an error and a perfectly executed hit-and-run single from Nick Valdez made it first and third. David Fletcher whacked a line-drive that plated Andrade for a sacrifice fly but Valdez was erased by the umpires after the third baseman's throw was interfered with by the Cypress third base coach.

It turned out to be moot, though, because of Lillicrop, who yielded just seven hits over his final three games according to coach John Weber.

"You can’t say enough. It’s remarkable. He competes his butt off, he prepares himself and he mixes his pitches," said Weber, who led the school to its second title. "If you can’t pitch to contact with this defense there’s something wrong with you."

Cypress got its second run in the fourth inning when Fletcher singled, stole second and moved to third on a passed ball. Tyler Alamo got him home with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

The Golden Bears, ranked No. 5 in SoCal, stayed close behind Brandon Koch on the mound, but the wheels came off in the bottom of the sixth when Cypress, ranked No. 6, netted three runs. It all started with an error on a bunt by Andrade, then Valdez plated him with a double. Pinch-runner Garrett Brockel scored on a triple from Stephen Lohr and Lohr trotted home on a single from Alamo.

"I’m blessed to say that Dodger Stadium was where my last high school game was," said Alamo. "I was trying to hit it to the right side (on the single) and outfield (on the sac fly). It worked both times."

Division 3
Serra (Gardena) 8, Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach) 1

The Cavaliers, ranked No. 4 in the SoCal rankings, earned their fourth section team title this school year by jumping ahead of the Mustangs and letting their outstanding pitching do the rest of the work. It’s the first baseball section title in program history.

The star of the show was undoubtedly Dominic Smith, who overpowered the Mustangs offense almost all afternoon under the hot sun. It wasn't all afternoon, because the senior hurler was lifted with two outs in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded.

"I wanted to stay in so bad. I begged and pleaded," said Smith, who managed to make it through one coach visit to the mound but not a second. "But I’m proud to be able to hand the ball off to Solemon Bates."

Bates took over on the mound and Smith moved to first, where just a few pitches later, he caught the final leg of a 6-4-3 double play to elicit a glove-tossing and dog-piling celebration on the infield.

Smith ended up going 6 1/3 innings, yielding three hits and four walks to go with nine strikeouts and a run. One hit and two of those walks came in the seventh inning.

While Smith starred, the Serra offense wasn't bad at all. The Cavaliers pounced early to forge the final score by the end of the fourth, started off by a second-inning home run from Marcus Wilson that hit the left field foul pole. Three more runs came in the third thanks in part to a two-run double from Wilson and then four came across in the fourth with a two-run single from Trent Hammond (a former Mira Costa player) and an electrifying steal of home from Denz'l Chapman.

All told, Serra bonked nine hits to get its eight runs. Coach Wilmer Aaron said he knew his team needed a lot less to get a victory with Smith dominating with his rapid-fire tempo on the mound.

"I knew he was on. If he’s pitching like that and we bring in Bates in relief, it’s over if we score early. We’re just not giving up more than one or two runs, it’s that simple," said Aaron, whose team finished 28-5.

Smith is a USC commit, and he's got a great appreciation for the journey that got him to the CIF title. And a great appreciation for the home of the Dodgers.

"It started day one, we were nowhere near this point. I’m happy I stayed four years," he said. "We were 3-27 the year before I came, then 13-13 and the postseason the next. Every year we got better.

"This field is amazing. You’ve got to calm your nerves. Maybe I will get to play here more in the future."

For Mira Costa (24-12), Braden Casady bunted Austin Henning home in the fourth inning for the team's only run. Henning led the team with two hits.