Harvard-Westlake baseball shut down by Corona pitching in CIF-SS Division 1 championship

LAKE ELSINORE — The Corona baseball team shut out Harvard-Westlake 5-0 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 final at Lake Elsinore Diamond Stadium on Saturday night behind Ethan Schiefelbein’s complete-game effort.

The UCLA commit allowed two hits and logged nine strikeouts in the game.

“The beauty of this is the pain of it, too,” Harvard-Westlake coach Jared Halpert said. “The whole experience is really important.”

Sam Burgess (TCU signee) homered over the right field wall to spark Corona’s offense and put up three runs in the fourth inning. Josh Springer (Oregon) and Billy Carlson (Vanderbilt) each scored for the Panthers.

Harvard-Westlake’s Bryce Rainer (Texas) hit a leadoff single to start the game and made it as far as third base, but the Wolverines (27-5-1) left him stranded.

The Wolverines’ James Tronstein reached first on an error and was thrown out at second base on a double play that forced Cade Goldstein out as well.

“We did a great job all year of staying in it even though the ball didn’t roll our way,” Tronstein, a Stanford commit, said. “I feel like we did a great job of staying in it and sticking to what we’ve done this entire year.”

Duncan Marsten struck out two hitters as Corona (30-3) went three up, three down in the bottom of the first inning.

Burgess and Schiefelbein both singled to left field with two outs in the top of the second frame before Harvard-Westlake’s defense forced a 1-3 groundout and continued to hold off the Panthers.

Corona’s Trey Ebel scored on a passed ball and Martsen logged his third HBP in the fifth inning, causing the coaching staff to bring in sophomore pitcher Jake Chung in relief. Chung forced Billy Carlson to pop out to Tronstein in center field to get out of the inning.

Chung was one of five underclassmen to play for the Wolverines in Saturday’s game. Sophomores Ethan Price and Will Suslow as well as freshmen Ira Rootman and Nate Blum got into the game — Blum had stepped in as starting catcher late this season after Drew Rico suffered a wrist injury.

“These playoff reps in this atmosphere are priceless,” Halpert said. “Getting back here and doing things like this is not easy to do. The future looks bright. I hope we get another shot at this with these kids.”

Ira Rootman, the Wolverines’ No. 9 hitter, singled in the top of the sixth inning and stole third, but Corona’s defense held Harvard-Westlake off by forcing Rainer to strike out and Tronstein to ground out.

Corona added one more run in the top of the sixth inning on Daniel Rivera’s RBI single.

Halpert said there’s beauty in the pain, but the pain doesn’t have to turn into anything. It sits with the players and the lessons from it seeps into their lives.

“This is our arena, and it’s one of those ‘better to have tried and failed than never tried at all’ kind of things,” Halpert said. “It’s the culture of baseball and sport.

“You have that experience and they can apply it to the future in baseball or their jobs or their relationships, in life with their families. It offers an amazing amount of growth.”

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Harvard-Westlake baseball shut down by Corona pitching in CIF-SS Division 1 championship – Daily News

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