Baseball: Shultz pushes Harvard-Westlake into postseason

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It turned out Harvard-Westlake didn’t have to win this afternoon’s game against St. Francis to make the postseason, but that didn’t stop Eric Shultz from playing like his back was against the wall.

Heading into the game faced with the possibility a loss could force a Friday elimination contest with Alemany to determine the Mission League‘s final playoff berth, Shultz pitched a complete-game, three-hitter and struck out nine in the Wolverines’ 5-1 victory over the Golden Knights.

‘His game today, and the one he had in the season opener against Valencia, probably stand out as his best games,’ Harvard-Westlake Coach Matt LaCour said. ‘You could tell on the bus he was ready to go.’

Shultz is part of two big reasons why the Wolverines should feel good about their postseason chances heading into Tuesday’s Southern Section-Toyota Division III wild-card game.

First, Shultz and BYU-bound southpaw Nik Turley form one of the region’s strongest starting pitching duos. In addition, the Wolverines, collectively, have been hardened by playing in what has to be considered the division’s most-competitive league -- just look at The Times’ rankings if you don’t believe me.

‘We have two pitchers that really make us dangerous,’ LaCour said. ‘When you consider what those two give us and the teams we’ve gone up against in the Mission League, I think we’re more solid than most.’

-- Austin Knoblauch