Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. It’s midseason in high school baseball, so let’s take a look at players producing results.
The producers
Sophomore Tyler George of Santa Margarita is 7-0 with an 0.85 ERA.
(Greg Townsend)
The mad rush to earn an automatic playoff berth in the Southern Section and earn the No. 1 seed in the City Section has begun in high school baseball. At midseason, Orange Lutheran is No. 1 in the Southern Section. El Camino Real or Bell are trending toward No. 1 in the City Section.
As far as players, sophomore Tyler George of Santa Margarita has had a dream season pitching. He’s 7-0 with an 0.85 ERA and just two walks in 41 1/3 innings.
Catcher Brady Murrietta has been like a superhero for Orange Lutheran behind the plate, leading, grinding and delivering.
Pitcher Dustin Dunwoody of Royal has an 0.18 ERA.
Here’s a list of players delivering big results at midseason.
Baseball
Orange Lutheran’s Ricardo Hurtado (left) and Blake Killinger were the offensive and defensive MVP of the Boras Classic.
(Nick Koza)
Orange Lutheran, which won the National High School Invitational in North Carolina, added the Boras Classic South to its resume, beating Norco 4-1 in the championship game. Here’s the report.
Orange Lutheran is No. 1 and Norco No. 1 in the new top 25 rankings by The Times.
Agoura freshman pitcher Zach Partee threw a no-hitter in a 1-0 win over Calabasas, which came back to score four runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat the Chargers 10-9 on Friday.
Harvard-Westlake and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame play a three-game series this week that could decide the Mission League title.
Orange Lutheran will play St. Mary’s on Saturday at Santa Clara University for the Boras Classic title.
South Gate had the biggest upset of the week, handing Bell a rare defeat in the Eastern League 7-3.
El Camino Real has a one-game lead over Birmingham in the West Valley League. The Valley Mission League has Poly and Sylmar tied with 6-1 records and North Hollywood at 5-2. Poly and North Hollywood have a two-game series this week.
Carson is atop the Marine League at 5-0.
Softball
Norco’s Leighton Gray (left), Peyton May and Saddie Burroughs.
(Nick Koza)
Norco (17-2) got its revenge, beating Fullerton and JSerra, the two teams that have wins over the Cougars. Peyton May and Coral Williams continue to be solid pitchers for Norco.
Murrieta Mesa is rolling along with an 18-0 record. Sophomore Tatum Wolff leads the team with a .552 batting average, including 32 hits, 20 RBIs and five home runs.
Orange Lutheran won a tournament championship over Thousand Oaks 6-1. It was quite a week pitching and hitting for Rylee Silva. The Lancers resume Trinity League with a challenging two-game week facing Santa Margarita and Mater Dei. Coach Steve Miklos earned victory No. 600.
Granada Hills opened West Valley League play with an important 7-3 win over El Camino Real. The Highlanders are 7-8 overall after facing Southern Section teams.
Carson is 2-0 in the Marine League and has games against Narbonne, Banning and Long Beach Poly this week.
Here’s the top 20 Southland softball rankings.
Track
Olympian Quincy Wilson (center) cruises to victory in the 400-meter dash in a meet record 45.48 seconds.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
The chance to see Olympian Quincy Wilson run in the 400 on Saturday night helped draw a record crowd of more than 14,000 for two days of the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High.
Wilson broke Michael Norman’s meet record, running 45.48 seconds.
Servite’s 4×100 relay team put on quite a show, breaking its own state record with a time of 39.70.
It’s pretty amazing because the relay team is made up of three sophomores and a junior. Kudos goes to coach Brandon Thomas. Benjamin Harris won the 100 meters in 10.32 seconds.
Thomas also helps coach the sister school, Rosary, whose girls’ 4×100 relay team also went beyond fast.
Here’s the report from the Arcadia Invitational.
Golf
Junior Jake Norr of Palisades made a hole-in-one at Woodley Lakes earlier this week while going 6-under par in nine holes.
(Palisades High)
The week could not have gone better for Palisades golfer Jake Norr, who recorded two holes in one on different courses.
Here’s the report on his memorable week.
Santa Margarita is looking strong in the Southern Section after winning a tournament in Palm Springs. Brayden Jones of Mater Dei was the individual champion.
St. Francis sophomore golfer Jaden Soong is taking this week off from playing with his high school team to travel to Dallas to play in the U.S. vs. Sweden junior golf competition. Soong won the CIF state title as a freshman.
Lacrosse
Loyola’s lacrosse team took a trip to the University of Notre Dame to play several matches. The Cubs lost to Salesianum from Delaware 14-6. They defeated Seton Hall Prep 15-10. They return home to face Foothill on Wednesday.
Loyola continues to top the boys lacrosse rankings in the Southern Section with St. Margaret’s No. 2.
In the girls’ rankings, Santa Margarita and Mira Costa rank No. 1 and No. 2.
Volleyball
Mateo Fuerbringer of Mira Costa is a 6-foot-5 junior volleyball player committed to UCLA.
(Steve Galluzzo)
The No. 1 volleyball prospect in the nation from the class of 2027 is Mateo Fuerbringer of Mira Costa. Here’s a profile of the UCLA commit who comes from a volleyball family.
Mira Costa (28-2) traveled to Hawaii and won the Clash of the Titans tournament at Punahou, including a win over Southern California rival Huntington Beach.
Notes . . .
Former Pasadena High and Laker Michael Cooper is the new basketball coach at Cal State Los Angeles….
Bonita softball standout Koa Puppe has committed to Cal State Fullerton…
It looks like a strike threat in the Los Angeles Unified School District starting Tuesday will be resolved. UTLA reached a tentative agreement Sunday, one of the three unions seeking new contracts. A strike would have halted LAUSD sporting events. Some have been moved to Monday in case the strike begins….
Los Alamitos is scheduled to announce its new football coach this week….
Zafar Sarajzada is the new basketball coach at St. Genevieve. He’s been an assistant at Sierra Canyon….
The All-CIF boys basketball team is headed by Maxi Adams of Sierra Canyon. The All-CIF girls basketball team is led by Kaleena Smith of Ontario Christian and Jerzy Robinson of Sierra Canyon….
Redondo Union guard Devin Wright has committed to Fairleigh Dickinson….
Redondo Union guard Chace Holley has committed to San Diego….
Defensive lineman Montana Toilolo of Mater Dei has committed to UCLA….
Receiver Charles Davis of Westlake has committed to Cal….
Former Narbonne basketball star Marcus Adams has committed to Hawaii. He’s played at CSUN and Arizona State….
Pole Moala, who was a standout defensive back at Leuzinger this past season, has committed to UCLA. He has since transferred to Santa Margarita….
Chris Paul will become an assistant coach at Campbell Hall, where his son plays.
From the archives: Gabriela Jaquez
Gabriela Jaquez in 2021.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
Former Camarillo standout Gabriela Jaquez celebrated a dream come true winning an NCAA women’s basketball championship for UCLA and starring in the championship game against South Carolina with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
Jaquez was a two-sport standout at Camarillo, also playing softball. She became a McDonald’s All-American and always wanted to follow brother Jaime to UCLA.
But UCLA didn’t offer Gabriela a scholarship until late in the recruiting process. Here’s a story from the 2022 that explains her late development and how dreams come true the hard way.
Recommendations
From Operations Sports, a look at the boycott by public schools in Nevada about playing Bishop Gorman’s football team.
From the Seattle Times, a story on Minnesota being sued for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time….
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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