The baseball postseason is nothing new for Flintridge Prep but, after moving up to Division III this season, it was uncharted waters starting with La Salle College Preparatory of Pasadena in the first round. After falling behind at the start, the Wolves quickly rebounded and came away with a convincing 10-6 win over the visiting Lancers in their CIF-Southern Section Division III first round contest Friday afternoon at the Glendale Sports Complex. “This is just momentum for us,” Flintridge Prep coach Guillermo Gonzalez said. “Moving up to Division III kind of threw us off a little bit, but just getting confident and playing our kind of style of game helps us out a little bit. That means a lot.” Flintridge Prep (18-7 overall record), the Prep League champion, was paced by Max Brunngraber on the mound, who went 6.1 innings for the win. “He’s been our workhorse all year,” Guillermo said of his pitcher. “Our biggest thing we preach to him is pitch to contact. He did that for us and got a couple key strikeouts for us when we needed them, and he gave it 110%.” The senior threw 110 pitches, striking out four Lancers in the process, including the last batter he faced. Brunngraber then gave way to freshman Will Grable, who conceded the final run while getting the final two outs via strikeouts to seal the inaugural Division III playoff victory for Flintridge Prep. “I think mostly I was able to drop in an off-speed pitch when I needed to,” Brunngraber said. “My curve and slider were definitely on. A lot of takes on fastballs after [throwing] off-speed low, that kind of thing, so a lot of sequencing went well overall.” La Salle (18-11 record) jumped out early with two runs in the top of the first. La Salle’s Will Clougherty led off the contest with an infield single. He scored two batters later when the Wolves’ left fielder dropped a pop fly off the bat of David Mysza. Moses Aguirre then drove home Mysza, who was on third base after a wild pitch, with a groundout.
“We came out like gangbusters in the first inning, put a little pressure on them,” La Salle coach Andy Nieto said. “We were fortunate to squeak out a couple runs.” Flintridge Prep bounced right back in the bottom of the frame with three runs. The first was scored by Rowan Schaeffer, who had led off by drawing a walk, and came across on an error by Lancer starting pitcher Val Gomez. Flintridge Prep’s Nathan Sanok, who had reached on a single, scored next on a ground ball off the bat of Grable. JR Kully scored the third run on a double-steal attempt with Wolves on the corners. The Lancers threw out the runner going for second, but this allowed Kully to get home safely. After a scoreless top of the
second, the hosts tacked on another run in the bottom of the inning. Will Koh started things with a single rolled into right field. The sophomore scored three batters later on a single by Kully that also chased Gomez. In the top of the third, La Salle, the No. 3 entry from the Del Rey League, knotted the score at 4-4 with a pair of runs. Hunter Vigil led off with a walk and was promptly driven home by way of a triple by Mysza. After two outs that followed, Mysza tied the game when driven in by a double from Chris Cardenas. The Wolves surged back into the lead with four runs in the bottom of the inning off of Lancer relief pitcher Morgan Sullivan, who would be saddled with the loss. After one out, the next five Wolves reached base. The third was Schaeffer, who hit a single with the bases full to score Graham DesHotel, who had reached on a walk. Sanok followed with a single that produced two runs, with the second coming home on a Lancer error. Schaefer scored the final run of the frame on a wild pitch before Sullivan struck out the last two Wolves to end the threat.
In the bottom of the fourth, Flintridge Prep added two more insurance runs. The first was driven in by Calvin Chen with a single. The second came across on a La Salle outfielder’s error and was scored by Brian Xu. “We take pride in trying to play clean championship baseball and today was definitely not an illustration of that,” Nieto said. “Flintridge Prep took it to us today and they deserved to win.” La Salle plated a run in the top of each of the final two innings, but it was not enough to stop the host Wolves from recording their first win in Division III and advance to play on the road at Long Beach Poly in the second round. “We’ve got to stay hungry, because in this Division III we are probably the smallest school in it, and the way to move on is just to stay hungry and keep surviving,” Gonzalez said.
WOLVES EDGED IN SECOND ROUND
The Wolves were shut out at Long Beach Poly, 1-0, in an eight-inning CIF-Southern Section Division III second-round matchup on May 9 as sophomore Rowan Schaeffer, who had a double, pitched 6.1 scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts. Freshman Will Grable went 2-for-4 while senior captains John Kully, Graham DesHotel and Max Brunngraber each had base a hit. Flintridge Prep concluded the season as Prep League champions with a 10-2 record (18-8 overall).
