Harvard-Westlake baseball struggles in loss to St. John Bosco in Division 1 semifinals

BELLFLOWER — Harvard-Westlake baseball coach Jared Halpert consoled his players after an offense that had been so reliable, somehow became undone Tuesday against St. John Bosco.

Harvard-Westlake struggled against the Braves and the movement generated by UC Irvine-bound pitcher Jack Champlin.

Champlin used a fastball with tailing inside run to the left side that baffled right-handed hitters and led St. John Bosco to a 3-1 victory over Harvard-Westlake in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinals.

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“Sometimes this game teaches you lessons,” Halpert said. “Sometimes they feel like they need to teach you a lesson as well. Credit to (St. John Bosco) coach Andy Rojo. St. John Bosco has been one of the best programs in the most difficult place to play baseball. And it’s a credit to that pitching staff and those kids. A fantastic baseball game.”

St. John Bosco (26-5) will play Norco for the Division 1 title on Friday or Saturday. The CIF-SS will announce the dates, times and locations for all of the finals Wednesday.

Champlin allowed one run through four innings with five strikeouts and one walk.

Harvard-Westlake (26-6) managed just one run off Champlin.

Wolverines sophomore Eric Tani came in as a pinch hitter and ripped an RBI single to right field to tie the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning with two outs.

“Whenever you can mix that many pitches for strikes, and Jack has a great breaking ball and brings some arm side run with your slider, it makes hitting for a tough day,” Halpert said.

Harvard-Westlake’s final undoing came in the fifth inning with the game tied 1-1. Starting pitcher Evan Alexander issued a walk to Braves shortstop James Clark. Alexander attempted a pickoff at first base, but his throw skirted away and Clark advanced from first to third base.

Razo singled in Clark and left fielder Noah Everly drove in Razo to put St. John Bosco ahead, 3-1.

Shortstop James Tronstein, a Vanderbilt commit, hit the ball hard twice but the base hits wouldn’t fall for him or for Harvard-Westlake, which carried nine players with Division I commitments on its team.

“Whenever you’re in this game on the line this late against a program of this caliber like Bosco, the lessons are in the game,” Halpert said. “Hopefully we learned a lot of lessons and we’ll come back and be better next time.”

Harvard-Westlake will return 31 players including freshman Louis Lappe, who finished 1 for 3. He hit what appeared to be a single into right field but was thrown out at first base by right fielder Jhett Ohira.

Lappe has established himself as one of the top players from the class of 2029. He started as a freshman and batted .333 with one home run and four doubles this season.

Lappe is known for hitting a walk-off home run for California during the 2023 Little League World Series to beat Curacao 6-5 in the final.

Now he’s drawing praise and creating his own merits in high school. Lappe wants to become one of the all-time greats to come out of Harvard-Westlake.

Halpert said Lappe is just scratching the surface as to the level of talent he could become.

“It’s a really challenging thing to have expectations,” Halpert said. “He has high expectations for him and he has high expectations for himself. And for this young man to go about his business with the maturity and professionalism he does speaks volumes. He’s one of the best around. He’s one of the best freshman in the country by a landslide.”