Baseball: Introducing the freshmen of the Mission League

They’re 14 and 15 years old. They’re freshmen. Some have already committed to colleges. None has officially hit off a varsity pitcher yet. But the buzz is building about the terrific young talent ready to play for Mission League teams starting next month.

“It’s a great year for freshmen,” Harvard-Westlake Coach Jared Halpert said.

No team has a better group than Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, led by infielder Daylen Reyes, already committed to UCLA.

It will be the first time in Tom Dill’s 26 years as Notre Dame coach that he’ll have at least four freshmen playing on varsity.

Besides Reyes, there’s left-handed pitchers Lucas Gordon and Connor Skertich and infielder Devan Orenelas. Tyler Stromsborg, committed to USC, is playing basketball so it remains to be seen if he’ll be on varsity.

Chaminade has Carter Graham, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound third baseman who Coach Frank Mutz calls “an incredible athlete.” Fraser Bohm, a 6-3 infielder-pitcher, is also highly regarded.

Harvard-Westlake is likely to have two starting freshmen on varsity _ shortstop Drew Bowser and outfielder Peter Crow-Armstrong.

Considering that the Mission League is home to the No. 1 pro prospect, Hunter Greene of Notre Dame, and outstanding pitchers Daniel Richeson of Alemany and Jesse Bergin of Harvard-Westlake, the freshmen are going to get tested.

“He’s pretty special,” Mutz said of Graham. “He’s doing things we didn’t expect.”

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