Baseball: McCabe Slye has discovered acting and pitching at Harvard-Westlake

There were more than a dozen baseball scouts at Harvard-Westlake’s field on Wednesday to watch Chaminade outfielder Blake Rutherford, one of the top pro prospects in the nation.

Senior pitcher McCabe Slye of Harvard-Westlake was joking, “They were all here to see me throw 82 mph.”

Nope, Slye isn’t going to see his name called in the amateur draft come June, but he already has an agent _ for acting. And the way he has been pitching, even Rutherford had to be impressed.

Slye allowed two hits, struck out six and walked two in the Wolverines’ 8-0 Mission League victory. At least if Rutherford makes it to the major leagues one day, Slye can say he got him to ground out and fly out twice in three plate appearances.

Slye hardly pitched last season, losing the opportunity to be a key contributor after an early season injury. But he won a starting job during the summer and was throwing with the precision of former Harvard-Westlake standout Jack Flaherty on Wednesday in a must-win game for the Wolverines, who lost their league opener to Chaminade on Tuesday. He has allowed one run in 19 1/3 innings this season.

“I’m really confident in the guys behind me and it allows me to throw strikes,” he said.

Slye and outfielders Jake Suddleson and Paul Giacomazzi were recruited to participate in the school play, “West Side Story.” Slye was so good playing the character, “Riff” that a talent agent offered to represent him. Now he has plans to continue acting when he goes off to NYU in the fall.

“It’s a really crazy journey I started with acting and adds to my baseball journey that I’m on, and it’s awesome,” he said.

Harvard-Westlake has had its share of athletes turned actors, such as Jason Segel, so start lining up for Slye autographs, though the way he’s pitching, it could be a versatile autograph.

The two teams play a third league game on Friday at Chaminade.

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