Greene, Notre Dame power past St. Francis baseball
A week after appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, much-ballyhooed Sherman Oaks Notre Dame prospect Hunter Greene and the Knights stopped by Glendale to face host St. Francis on Monday.
Greene is an acclaimed pitcher/shortstop who’s fastball has been clocked at 102 mph and is viewed as a potential No. 1 pick in the upcoming Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
Although the Golden Knights didn’t see the 6-foot-4 Greene on the pitcher’s mound, they were witness to what he can do with his bat. Greene slugged two no-doubt home runs Monday to pace Notre Dame to a 13-2 Mission League victory against St. Francis at the Glendale Sports Complex.
“If I’m not pitching, I just try and contribute at the plate and do what I can in the infield,” said Greene, who has been shut down from pitching for the season. “I tried to do that with the home runs today and I did what I had to do at shortstop.
“It’s important for me and for my team that I step up whenever I can and show people that I can do more than just pitch; that I can play shortstop and I can produce at the plate, as well.”
Greene was three for four with two solo home runs. In the field, he was flawless in four chances for Notre Dame (20-7, 13-2 in league), which clinched the Mission League championship with the win.
St. Francis Coach Aaron Dorlarque said his team might have been too caught up in the hype of playing against a likely future major-league player.
“You have a big talent across the field in Hunter Greene and he had a few hits today, including two bombs,” said Dorlarque, whose team is 8-18, 5-10. “I think we were a little bit intimidated … and I needed our guys to believe that they could compete with him. He is very good, but in baseball you can compete with guys like that.
“We read the newspaper about him, we read Sports Illustrated and I think we really believed all that we read and that got to us. He is talented, but this is baseball and he’ll get himself out 70% of the time if you let him, and we didn’t let him.”
Notre Dame got its offense rolling quickly, pushing across three runs in the top of the first inning. But St. Francis pushed right back, getting two runs of its own in the bottom of the frame. Christian Muro led off with a double to deep left field and was plated by a double to left-center by Brandon Lewis. Lewis scored on a single to left by Doyle Kane to make it 3-2.
However, after getting three hits in the first, the Golden Knights couldn’t manage another hit the remaining six innings.
Notre Dame staring pitcher Lucas Gordan sat down the Golden Knights in order the next three innings. Gordon went five innings, allowing three hits and two runs while striking out seven and walking two.
“I just think we weren’t too sharp pitching-wise in the first inning,” Notre Dame Coach Tom Dill said. “Most teams haven’t been able to get many runs off [Gordon]. But once they got the two runs, that was it and we played better after that.”
Notre Dame scored four more runs in the third, five in the fourth and one in the seventh.
St. Francis got two runners on base in the fifth inning via walks, but couldn’t advance them. Aaron Treloar reached base on a fielder’s choice in the sixth and advanced to second on a throwing error, but was left stranded.
Twitter: @jefftsports
