Crespi halts Harvard-Westlake’s comeback to clinch Mission League title

ENCINO — The air was silent and still for a full second before a lone shout of “let’s go” cut through the air, followed by the soft thud of a ball dropping into the glove of Crespi left fielder Gavin Huff’s.

“I just saw it was hit hard,” Huff said. “I saw it was up in the air. I just knew I had to get back and just run as hard as I can, because the game was on the line. Gotta get there or we lose.”

The Harvard-Westlake baseball team put up two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Crespi pitcher Mikey Martinez got Wolverines power hitter Miguel Villegas to fly out to Huff for the final out in the Celts’ 7-6 win.

Crespi (20-2 overall, 13-2 Mission League) won the three-game series against Harvard-Westlake 2-1 and clinched at least a share of the Mission League title with the win. The Celts last won a league championship in 2010.

“This is a good team,” Celts shortstop Nate Lopez said. “Everybody did their part, we had fun, we played free and we did what we had to do.”

The senior San Diego State commit was 0 for 3 at the plate to start the game but came up with a game-changing hit in the sixth inning. The score was tied at 4-all before Lopez laced a three-run double to right-center field.

Troy Miller, leadoff hitter Landon Hodge and Diego Velazquez each scored runs. Harvard-Westlake (17-9, 11-4) intentionally walked Hodge and Velazquez to load the bases as Lopez came up to bat.

“I like to thrive in those situations, knowing that I’m able to do what I can do and just play calm,” Lopez said. “All the teams leading up to this (prepared us), our practices, our hard work we put in. It really paid off this week.”

Miller also doubled to start the inning, a cue for the dugout’s “choo choo” celebration that was designed to get the whole team’s arms pumping.

The Celts played small when it counted, too, and had only three hits in the game compared to the Wolverines’ nine. Crespi had one HBP, a stolen base and two bunts in the second inning to gain a 2-1 advantage.

“I would have never thought that we were going to win 7-6 with only three hits,” Celts head coach Mike Glendenning said.

“We had timely hitting, and sometimes you don’t have to put so many hits on the board,” he continued. “There’s been times when we put 10 hits on the board and only scored two runs. The game’s funny sometimes.”

Harvard-Westlake scored in the bottom of the first inning on a Jack Laffitte single. The Michigan commit went 3 for 4 in the game with two RBIs.

“We work so hard every single day at practice,” Laffitte said. “Everything from hitting to defense to base running, it’s just from that daily grind that we spend, and we’re all the way in every day.”

Laffitte had another RBI single in the bottom of the third inning, but it was Jake Kim who really got his team going with a two-run double that scored Laffitte and James Tronstein.

“Jake hits every day,” Wolverines head coach Jared Halpert said. “I think that’s worthy of noting and it’s not typical. It really isn’t. I mean, literally, it’s every day. He’s going to batting cages on his own on Sundays, and the kid has yet to miss one day of swings during the entire year.”

Crespi has a home-and-home series with Chaminade remaining on the regular season schedule before CIF Southern Section playoff pairings are released on May 12. The Celts last won a CIF championship in Division 2 in 2023.

Competition will continue for Harvard-Westlake with a home-and-home series against Loyola, the Mission League’s third-place team.

“(We had) a really competitive fall and a really competitive season,” Halpert said, “and you get to have a game with this intensity and meaning at the end of the year, right before playoffs — it really is a benefit for both programs. This was a playoff game.”