CARY, N.C. - Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) took home the inaugural USA Baseball National High School Invitational (NHSI) title after defeating in Harvard-Westlake (Studio City, Calif.) 3-2 in a dramatic fashion on Saturday, March 31st.
In its championship run, Mater Dei defeated the number one and number two teams in the tournament to advance to the final, and Harvard Westlake entered the championship game coming off an emotional semifinal win the night before, taking down American Heritage in extra innings.
Harvard Westlake wasted no time getting on the board. Arden Pabst dropped one in right center field for an RBI double that put Harvard-Westlake up 1-0. Max Fried came through with an RBI double in the third inning to extend the lead to 2-0. Mater Dei finally got on the board in the fourth inning on a Ryan McMahon solo home run to cut the Harvard-Westlake lead to just one.
Time was running out for Mater Dei in the bottom of the seventh. Down one with one out, Davis Tominaga stepped up for the Monarchs and tied the game with the second solo home run of the day for the Monarchs. But that was all Mater Dei was able to get and the game went to extra innings tied 2-2.
Mater Dei held Harvard-Westlake scoreless in the top of the eighth before going to work in the bottom half. The Monarchs loaded the bases and then Ryan Barr knocked a RBI single into left field to give Mater Dei a walk-off victory and the championship.
Mater Dei's Davis Tominaga pitched a perfect fourth inning before hitting the game-tying home run in the bottom of the seventh. Ty Moore also pitched for the Monarchs, allowing just two hits and walking only one with two strikeouts over four innings. Harvard-Westlake's Max Fried (1-for-3, one RBI) and Joe Corrigan (2-for-3, one run and one walk) were strong in the Wolverines' loss.
WP: Moore, 4.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
LP: Rand-Lewis, 0.2 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 0 earned runs, 2 walks, 1 strikeout