Southern California proved tough to beat in the first round of the National High School Invitational as all three teams moved into the second round with impressive wins.
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) pulled off the biggest upset of the day, dropping Xcellent 25 No. 1
Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.) 10-3 behind an eight-run third inning.
The Monarchs fell behind 2-1 in the opening frames, but took a commanding lead in the third. Mater Dei had six doubles on the day and received a pair of RBI from
Austin Grebeck,
Tyler Adkison and
Ryan Barr.
Davis Tominaga had a complete-game win for the Monarchs while Cody Roper took the loss for the Gaels.
Meanwhile
Orange Lutheran (Orange, Calif.) knocked off No. 10
Columbus (Ga.) 1-0 as
Art Moran-Vidrio outdueled Blue Devil standout
Kyle Carter for the win. The Lancers scored their only run in the first inning on an RBI by
Tommy Bell.
Columbus played without shortstop
J.t. Phillips, who is out with a stress fracture in his back.
Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.) also won its opener, ending Russell County's 17-game win streak with a 6-2 win. Sophomore
Jack Flaherty picked up the win for the Wolverines with
Arden Pabst,
Max Fried,
Alex Horowitz and
Joe Corrigan all coming through on offense with two hits apiece.
In other games,
Parkview (Lilburn, Ga.) knocked off No. 7
Washington (New York, N.Y.) 11-3 behind
Matt Olson went six innings and allowed two runs on three hits with five strikeouts. He also went 2-for-3 at the plate with a triple and two RBI.
Kevin Torres took the loss for the Trojans, giving up eight runs on nine hits with three strikeouts.
Brookwood (Snellville, Ga.) defeated
Highlands Ranch (Colo.) 7-0 on the arm of
Lucas Sims, who struck out 11 batters in just over five innings of work.
Ryan Burr took the loss for Highlands Ranch.
Ryan Woodard led Brookwood on offense with three RBI on a bases-loaded double.
American Heritage (Plantation, Fla.) opened the tournament with a 6-2 win over
Oxford (Oxford, Ala.).
Alex Seibold went five innings and allowed just two earned runs for the Patriots while
Tucker Simpson gave up five earned runs while striking out seven for Oxford.
