Baseball: The losers have nothing to be ashamed about
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Those who missed Tuesday’s Southern Section Division I semifinal doubleheader at Blair Field in Long Beach lost out on seeing some of the best high school baseball all season.
‘Best atmosphere I’ve seen in a long time,’ UCLA Coach John Savage said. ‘Those were two great high school games.’
Capistrano Valley’s 1-0 victory over Riverside Poly and Edison’s 2-1 victory over Mater Dei was more about teams finding a way to win than teams losing.
From the duel between Capistrano Valley’s Tyler Matzek and Riverside Poly’s Dylan Stuart to the amazing composure of sophomore pitcher Henry Owens of Edison, this was a night to admire the talent on display.
As one scout remarked, with Matzek throwing fastballs up to 97 mph on some radar guns, he would have been striking out batters en masse if the opponent had been from any other state. But Poly’s hitters were making contact and putting pressure on perhaps the No. 1 left-handed high school prospect in the nation. It was a tribute to Southern Californa baseball talent from start to finish.
-- Eric Sondheimer