Baseball: Chaminade’s Blake Rutherford arrives home after winning gold medal

Blake Rutherford is home.

“I’m excited to be back,” he said Thursday morning.

The Chaminade High baseball player won a gold medal with the USA 18U national team at the Pan American Championships in La Paz, Mexico, on Sunday, then was stranded because of the effects of Hurricane Odile.

He and his teammates boarded a military plane on Wednesday and were flown to Tijuana, then took a bus to LAX, arriving at 7:30 p.m. A friend picked him up and took him to his Simi Valley home.

His mother also got out, but his father had to stay another day and was expected back on Thursday.

When he finally said goodbye to his teammates that he had spent the last four weeks with, he said, “It was hard. Those were my brothers. I’m going to remember forever this trip winning a gold medal.”

Players played volleyball and talked a lot while waiting for authorities to evacuate them. There was no cellphone service.

“We couldn’t text each other. We had to talk to each other,” he said.

When his phone finally began to fully work again after landing in Tijuana, Rutherford said he had 65 text messages from family and friends.

“I’m thankful for everything I have and blessed for all the people I have in my life,” he said.

Now it’s back to studying. He’s supposed to meet with a counselor at Chaminade either Thursday or Friday to catch up on homework and reading assignments. And he wants to see how the Eagles football team is doing.

“I hear we’re looking good,” he said.

The junior is committed to UCLA, and four of his future teammates were on the USA team _ Kolby Allard (San Clemente), Lucas Herbert (San Clemente), Peter Lambert (San Dimas) and Kyle Molnar (Aliso Niguel). They’re back home as well, and their friendship was solidified by experiences they’ll always remember.

“We’ll never forget this trip,” he said.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer