CYPRESS – Harvard-Westlake of Studio City quickly made sure Cypress’ James Acuna wouldn’t throw back-to-back no-hitters, and it was the early damage that stood up.
Leo Kaplan hit a three-run home run in the first inning to propel the Wolverines to a 5-3 win over Cypress in a CIF-SS Division 1 quarterfinal game at Cypress High on Friday.
“This was an absolute dogfight,” Harvard-Westlake coach Jared Halpert said. “We just happened to come out on the right side of the scoreboard this time. This is what a quarterfinal game should look like.”
Harvard-Westlake (24-8) will be the designated home team when it takes on top-seeded JSerra in the semifinals at Blair Field in Long Beach on Tuesday.
Cypress (25-8) was in a tough spot as Acuna struggled with his pitch location in the first inning with two walks and a hit batter.
Kaplan came up with two on and took advantage.
“I was just looking for a fastball that I could drive,” Kaplan said. “He threw me a fastball up, then came with the slider, and then just gave me something I could hit. I just put a good swing on it.”
That swing put the ball over the left field fence scoring Kaplan, Jake Suddleson and Cameron Deere.
“We didn’t want to let him establish himself off of his fastball,” Halpert said. “We did that, but unfortunately the kid can throw three pitches for strikes.”
Acuna busted out his other pitches, racked up 10 strikeouts and did not allow a second hit until the seventh inning.
“I thought James was resilient today,” Cypress coach John Weber said. “He got through that, and really, most importantly, he established his slider. That’s a swing-and-miss slider through the mix there.”
Offensively, Cypress had to grind things out against Wolverines starter Deere.
Anthony Marquez scored in the second and fourth innings for the Centurions. Marquez was hit by a pitch and came home on Jason Baca’s groundout in the second. In the fourth, Marquez hit a single and scored on Isaiah Parra’s single.
“You could be a little disappointed or a little frustrated that we didn’t take better swings at it,” Weber said. “On the flipside of it, (Deere) didn’t miss up in the zone very much today. His slider was good and down.”
Deere pitched into the seventh inning and allowed three runs on six hits with five strikeouts.
Acuna started the seventh, but a leadoff bunt for a hit and walk forced Weber’s hand.
“He was at 107 pitches, which is, I think, more than we’ve ever thrown him,” Weber said. “He wanted to go, so we sent him back out (for the seventh). We knew it was going to be an incredibly short leash.”
Deere earned a RBI with a bases-loaded walk, and Kaplan got his fourth RBI with a single.
Baca led off with a double in the bottom of the seventh and scored on an Ezele Wicks sacrifice fly before Harvard-Westlake closed the door.