El Dorado’s AJ Frausto pitches during the championship game of the National Classic against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks on Friday, April 5, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
PLACENTIA — Notre Dame pitcher Levi Sterling was unsolvable in the championship game of the National Classic between the Knights and El Dorado on Friday at El Dorado High School.
El Dorado’s baseball team managed only three hits against the 6-foot-5, University of Texas signee, who struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter over seven innings, leading the team from Sherman Oaks to a 4-0 victory.
“He’s a big arm,” Notre Dame coach Nick La Face said. “He’s very talented. He’s got a great arsenal of pitches and when he’s attacking the zone, that’s what it can look like, so we’re glad we had him today and he was able to execute at the level that he did.”
The Knights (13-5-1) went 4-0 in the tournament, which included victories over Arcadia, West Ranch and a 4-2 semifinal victory over Servite.
“It was an awesome tournament with good competition and we were glad to be part of it,” La Face said.
Runner-up El Dorado (12-9) went 3-1 in the tournament and Golden Hawks coach Matt Lucas told his team that the loss shouldn’t overshadow how well it played over the past two weeks.
The Hawks had won seven in a row during that stretch before Friday’s loss.
“You want to win, but I don’t think the loss is going to derail what we’ve done the last two weeks,” Lucas said. “We’ve played really well the last two weeks, which is when we went into this playing back-to-back tournaments. We challenged these guys and said, look, we need to take eight games to be ready for our last six (league) games.”
El Dorado’s best scoring chance against Sterling came in the first inning, when leadoff hitter Lucas Raya singled and Jake Vanderzee reached on an error one out later.
But with two on and one out, Sterling struck out Brady Abner and retired Diego Gonzalez on a ground out.
The Hawks’ other two hits, a single from Ben Alam in the fourth and a double from Raya in the fifth, both came with two outs.
“Good pitching is always going to beat good hitting,” Lucas said.
El Dorado starter A.J. Frausto also pitched a complete game, giving up four runs, two that were earned, with three strikeouts and two walks.
The Knights’ first three runs were scored by Jacob Madrid and Brody Thompson, who both reached base on walks, and Kai Gonzaga, who was hit by a pitch.
Cadiz scored the Knights’ final run from third on a sacrifice fly by Sterling.
El Dorado’s three victories in the tournament included an 11-2 victory over Columbia River, a 7-6 come-from-behind victory over Granada Hills Charter when the Hawks scored four runs in the seventh and 10-0 victory over Gahr.
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