CARY, N.C. - In the fifth edition of the USA Baseball National High School Invitational (NHSI), Huntington Beach High School (Huntington Beach, Calif.) won its first title by defeating Chaminade Prep (Los Angeles, Calif.) 7-2 on Saturday, April 26th. The championship came one year after Huntington Beach was eliminated from the event by eventual 2015 champion San Clemente.
Chaminade Prep started the scoring right away in the top of the first. Blake Solis smacked an RBI single through the right side of the infield to give Chaminade the early lead. But Huntington Beach's bats came alive and responded in the bottom of the second starting with a Hagen Danner leadoff double into left field. Danner scored a few plays later on a sacrifice bunt play from Trevor Windisch to tie the game. Later in the inning, Dominic Abbadessa and Chad Minato hit back to back two-out singles to make it 4-1.
Huntington Beach sophomore pitcher Nate Madole stranded baserunners in each of his six innings of work before Koby Anton took over in the seventh inning to finish the job allowing just one hit.
Danner, who finished the game 3-for-3, reached home again in the fifth to make it 5-1 and Landon Silver's RBI single in the sixth scored two to make it 7-1. Chaminade added a run in the seventh but it wouldn't be enough as the Oilers closed it out to secure the championship.
"We came here, and now we win this tournament. It just keeps getting better and better," Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure said. "I'm so proud of these guys. They worked so hard for it, and I think they deserve every bit of it."
Huntington Beach Junior RHP Hagen Danner was strong offensively, going 3-for-4 in the championship win with a double and two runs. Chaminade's Nick Kahle went 2-for-4 and Blake Rutherford went 1-for-3 with a double.
WP: Madole, 6.1 IP, 7 hits, 2, runs, 2 earned runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts
LP: Whisnant, 1.2 IP, 4 hits, 4 runs, 4 earned runs, 1 walk
Chaminade Prep: 2 runs, 8 hits, 1 error
Huntington Beach: 7 runs, 8 hits, 1 error