San Clemente, College Park reach finals of 2015 National High School Invitational
Photo by Alyson Boyer Rode
Sam Behrens went the distance for College Park, getting his team to the final at the National High School Invitational.
College Park (Pleasant Hill, Calif.) won its first two games of the National High School Invitational with pitching. In Friday's 13-2 win over Mosley (Lynn Haven, Fla.), the Falcons won it with offense.
College Park handed the Dolphins (14-1) their first loss of the season by banging out 15 hits, including four for extra bases. Jeffrey Mitchell had a huge game for the Falcons, as he went 3-for-4 with a double and five RBIs. Joe DeMers helped out with a 3-for-5 effort that included a triple while Chris Brown was 3-for-4 with a double. Jack Downing added a 2-for-3 performance that included two RBIs and a double.
Mosley managed seven hits, all of them singles, in the loss. JJ Bleday and Garrett Breland each had two hits in the loss. Sam Behrens went seven innings for the win for College Park, striking out two with no walks.
The win for College Park sets up an all-California championship game at the NHSI, as San Clemente also won its semifinal game over Huntington Beach.
San Clemente (Calif.) 5, Huntington Beach (Calif.) 1
Photo by Alyson Boyer Rode
Chris Puckett yielded just one run to get San Clemente to an all-California final.
San Clemente advanced to the championship game thanks to another strong pitching performance.
Chris Puckett gave up one run on five hits in six innings of work while striking out five and walking three. His win kept San Clemente undefeated on the season at 11-0 while Huntington Beach fell to 4-6 with the loss.
While the pitching limited the Oilers to just one run, the offense pounded 14 hits off three Huntington Beach pitchers. Will Tribucher had the only extra base hit with a double. Brett O'Toole went 3-for-4 while Dylan Riddle, Trevor Beard, Puckett and Tribucher all had two hits apiece.
Consolation Bracket
Farragut (Knoxville, Tenn.) 5, College Station (Texas) 4
The Admirals came from behind twice to defeat College Station, getting the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Jake Hagenow hit a sacrifice fly that scored Cole Morgan with the winning run. Farragut also needed a run in the bottom of the seventh to keep the game going. Tyler Lugo hit a single to center field to plate Duncan Pence and tie the game at four.
College Station made the most of its three hits, scoring two runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Cannon Davis drove in all four runs, getting two of them on a triple in the fifth.
Farragut had 13 hits in the game with Hagenow going 3-for-4 and Pence hitting a triple.
Puyallup (Wash.) 12, Loyalsock Township (Williamsport, Pa.) 0
The Vikings scored eight runs in the third inning en route to the victory in consolation play.
Zach Needham, Kenton Robillard, Ryan Peterson and Brendan Illies all had doubles to pace Puyallup's 11-hit attack.
Horizon (Scottsdale, Ariz.) 6, Leesville Road (Raleigh, N.C.) 0
Horizon picked up its first win of the tournament. Mike White went the distance, yielding two hits with four strikeouts and a walk to get the win. Horizon had 10 hits in the game, including two each from Travis Geyer, Danny Berger, Josh McGinley and Evan Williams.
