Prep Rally: Here are the top high school baseball players at midseason

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. We’re getting close to midseason in baseball. The weather has not been great, leading to starts and stops, but there’s been some noteworthy individual performances.

Players making an impact

Dean West of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame slides into home plate to score in the first inning on Tuesday against Harvard-Westlake.

(Craig Weston)

A look at high school baseball players distinguishing themselves in the opening two months:

Levi Sterling, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. The No. 1-ranked Knights have found their closer in Sterling, a junior committed to Texas. He comes in, uses his velocity and poise and brings games to an immediate end. If he keeps it up, beware of the Knights in the Division 1 playoffs. He has three saves and counting.

Justin Santiago, Bonita. The senior pitcher just committed to Long Beach State and is 5-0 with an 0.35 ERA.

Sterling Patick, South Hills. The senior pitcher has 50 strikeouts in 30 innings and is 5-0 without giving up any runs.

Landon Gordon, Santa Ana Mater Dei. The sophomore pitcher has been a key asset in the Monarchs winning seven of their nine Trinity League games.

Blake Wilson, Santa Margarita. The two-sport standout has led the Eagles to an 11-2 record.

Collin Clarke, Santa Margarita. An uncommitted senior pitcher, all Clarke has done is defeat JSerra, Orange Lutheran and Servite on the mound.

Diego Velazquez, Crespi. The sophomore is batting .451 while going 3-0 on the mound.

Mason Edwards, Palisades. The left-handed pitcher committed to USC might be the best in the City Section. He’s 3-0 with an 0.32 ERA.

Gavin Grahovac, Villa Park. One of the region’s top pro prospects is delivering as expected with 19 hits, 14 RBIs and three home runs.

Chris Downs, Hart. At 6 feet 7, Downs is a towering presence on the mound and has come into games and been an immediate stopper. He has 18 strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings with saves against Villa Park and Saugus.

Richard Ojeda, Valencia. He has given up just 15 hits and no earned runs in 37 innings while going 5-1, striking out 51 and walking six.

Dylan Fien, Great Oak. The junior catcher has 16 hits in 28 at-bats.

Tanner Mahon, Campbell Hall. The Oregon commit is batting .419 with three home runs. As a pitcher, he’s 4-0 and has given up zero runs in 24 innings while striking out 33 for 9-1-1 Campbell Hall.

Wyatt Rosales, Cypress. The sophomore pitcher is 5-0 with 25 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings.

Filipino power

Junior JB Dalumpines of Birmingham has Filipino roots.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Growing the game of baseball in the Philippines, the national team believes, starts with a pipeline to Los Angeles as a slew of Filipino American talent is popping up across the Southland. Over the summer, much of that talent played together on a youth national team alongside a couple of players from the Philippines

For many, it inspired hope they could help build a baseball culture in the Philippines — and turn the region into a force on the world’s biggest stage.

“Playing for a nationality, building it up now, I think it’d be really important for me to play on the [WBC] team,” said Loyola’s Adam Magpoc, who is half-Filipino and has committed to Boston College.

“I was here when it started,” Magpoc continued. “So I’m going to be there when it’s successful.”

A look at the Filipino players in the Southland rising up.

Hitting anywhere

Crespi pitcher/second baseman Diego Velazquez with brothers Damian, 5, and David, 8.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

There’s a hole in the wall in the living room of the two-bedroom apartment in Reseda where Diego Velazquez practices hitting with his father, Salvador.

“I was swinging and messed up,” Diego said.

The bat did the damage.

“He got mad at me,” Diego said. “Me and my dad swing with each other.”

His dad works in construction, so the hole and other dents are no big deal. He can patch them. It’s not sending the ball flying that matters most in the Velazquez family.

Diego, a 6-foot-2 sophomore second baseman, is standing in the batter’s box at Crespi High’s home baseball field. His mother, Rocio, has no time to watch. She’s standing in the snack bar wearing an apron while grilling hamburgers and turkey burgers as her two younger sons, David, 8, and Damian, 5, play with a soccer ball.

Diego is a star in the making. A profile about his talents and passion.

Big games ahead

League play picks up steam this week in high school baseball. Birmingham and Granada Hills are set for a critical two-game series that could decide the West Valley League title if either team sweeps.

No. 1 Notre Dame is playing second-place Crespi in a three-game Mission League series. The Celts have one of their best teams in years and brings back memories of some great matchups of players whether it would be Jeff Suppan, Giancarlo Stanton, Trevor Plouffe, Ryon Healy or Hunter Greene.

A group of teams are headed to Cary, N.C., for the National High School Invitational that begins on Wednesday. They include Santa Margarita, Aquinas, Huntington Beach and JSerra.

Here’s this week’s top 25 high school baseball rankings by The Times.

Track

The Arcadia Invitational is two weeks away, and the top track and field athletes are gearing up to deliver top performances on April 8 at Arcadia High.

Rodrick Pleasant of Gardena Serra ran his first outdoors 200 on Saturday and is scheduled to run in his first 100 on Saturday at Trabuco Hills.

Here’s a look at some of last week’s top performances from the Pasadena Games and Simi Valley Invitational.

Notre Dame quarterback Steele Pizzella ran the anchor leg on a 4x200 relay team that was impressive. He’s running track for the first time and is gaining speed. He also was clocked running a 4.47 40 at a football showcase on Sunday.

Jordan Coleman of Granada Hills is giving his City champion teammate Dijon Stanley some competition this spring. Coleman, a junior, won the 100 at the Simi Valley Invitational in 10.61 and finished second to Stanley in the 200.

Rivalry week

It’s the week in high school volleyball that fans enjoy: Rivalry week. And no match draws more yearly excitement than when Mira Costa takes on Loyola. The latest is set for Friday night at Loyola Marymount.

Loyola is expected to be ranked No. 1 in Division 1 volleyball this week after knocking off defending champion Newport Harbor last week. Sean Kelly had 24 kills. Luke Anderson had 11 kills. Freshman Blake Fahlbusch had 10 kills.

Mira Costa, which also has a match on Monday with Mater Dei, is led by 6-foot-8 junior setter Tread Rosenthal, a Hawaii committed who helped lead the U19 national team to the gold medal at the Pan American Games this month. He was named tournament MVP.

Softball

Fullerton High softball star Malaya Majam-Finch is dominating at the plate and in the circle in her freshman season.

(Luca Evans / Los Angeles Times)

When she was younger, Malaya Majam-Finch would toddle into the living room of her grandparents’ quaint house in La Mirada and find, essentially, an open-air trophy case.

There were two Honda Sports Awards for softball, given annually to the best college female athlete in each sport. A memento of an NCAA national championship. A heap of old gloves. All a shrine to Aunt Jennie.

Yes, Majam-Finch’s aunt: that Jennie Finch, former All-American at Arizona. One of the most famous players in softball history. The pitcher that once made Albert Pujols look silly.

From a young age, Majam-Finch begged her grandpa Doug to give her pitching lessons. She ate it up, father and Finch’s brother Shane grinned. Studying stats. Constantly evaluating herself against the trajectory of an all-time great.

Now a 14-year-old freshman at Fullerton High, Majam-Finch is building a legacy as a dominant two-way player that stands alone from the shine in her grandparents’ living room.

Here’s the report.

Notes . . .

Kyle Murphy is the new football coach at Garden Grove Pacifica. . . .

Former Mission Viejo pitcher Patrick Sandoval of the Angels was named to the WBC All-Tournament team after pitching for Mexico. . . .

Ace pitcher Justin Santiago of Bonita has committed to Long Beach State. . . .

Former Loyola defensive back David Long has signed with the Raiders as a free agent after playing with the Rams. . . .

Michael Nobles, who was an assistant at Dana Hills, is the new football coach at Saddleback. . . .

At 83, John Tyree has retired as football coach at Banning High in Banning. . . .

Pitcher Gavin Pacheco of Huntington Beach has committed to San Francisco. . . .

Mike Prewitt is retiring after 32 years of coaching at Camarillo, most recently nine seasons as girls’ basketball coach. He also coached the boys team. . . .

De’Jon Frazier is the new boys’ basketball coach at Cantwell-Sacred Heart. He was an assistant at Long Beach Jordan. . . .

Standout sophomore basketball player Jovani Ruff of Long Beach Poly is headed to prep school Southern California Academy.

From the archives: Jamie Dixon

The Valley boy, Jamie Dixon, has had success coaching wherever he has gone. He was head coach at Pittsburgh for 13 years and now has had success at his alma mater, TCU, which lost to Gonzaga last week.

Dixon was a star guard at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in the 1980s, a late bloomer, going from 5 feet 3 as a freshman to growing more than 10 inches. His coaching career was aided by a friendship with Ben Howland, who hired him as a graduate assistant at UC Santa Barbara and followed Howland to Northern Arizona and Pittsburgh as his top assistant.

Dixon has been in the running for jobs at UCLA and USC. His late sister, Maggie, was a star player at Notre Dame and later head women’s coach at Army.

Recommendations

From the San Diego Union-Tribune, a story on a former La Jolla Country Day high school guard who helped make Princeton an NCAA tournament Cinderella team.

From the Washington Post, a story about the conflict involving elite tennis players’ aspirations and their high school obligations.

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