By NIck Berman

It's 3:15 on Tuesday, May 13th and Downey’s Nate Coranada has just thrown the first pitch of the CIF wildcard playoff game to Gavin McCourt. No one would have suspected that the last pitch would come by the arm of Jack LaZebnik, 20 innings and 7 ½ hours later.

The Wolverines season ended on Tuesday, but they went down fighting in what would be the longest CIF playoff game in history.

Harvard Westlake was down 2-1 in the top of the 6^th when starting pitcher, Nik Turley, drove in Chris Tennenbaum (‘08) from third base on a groundball to Downey’s second baseman. No run would be scored for the next 14 innings due to stellar pitching performances by Wolverine’s senior, Eric Shultz, and Downey’s pitcher John Lopez. Eric Shultz came into the game in bottom of the 5^th inning, relieving fellow senior Nik Turley. Shultz would exit the game in the 14^th inning after throwing 9 and 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. Shultz was pulled after 160 pitches and had to come out due to CIF rules which limit High School pitchers to a maximum of 10 Innings in per week. When asked how he felt on Thursday, Shultz replied, “My arm feels great. If we had a game today, I would be ready to go out and pitch another 10.” This same CIF rule applied to Downey’s pitcher, John Lopez who threw 10 1/3 scoreless innings allowing just 7 hits and 1 walk (his last allowed out was a double play).

The Downey Vikings were swamped with opportunities in the extra innings as they had left 27 runners on base during the game and had 33 base runners in the last 15 innings of the game. In one of the many extra innings, Downey had the bases loaded with one out when Eric Shultz caught a line drive and doubled up the runner at first to end the inning. Shultz also got himself out of a jam after giving up a leadoff triple to center fielder, Ivory Thomas, who went 5-6 in the game with 3 walks and 3 stolen bases.

The Wolverines had their opportunities as well both when Turley was called out on a play at the plate and when Harvard Westlake was unable to convert with the bases loaded and 2 outs. The Wolverines, in general, struggled at the plate, going 9 for 61 as a team (.148 average) and leaving a total of 16 men on base.

It all came down to the 20^th inning when the bases were loaded with no outs for the Downey Vikings. Both Shultz and LaZebnik had gotten out of jams, but it just caught up to the Wolverine pitchers. LaZebnik, who had thrown 5 shutout innings before the 20th, got the loss by walking in Ivory Thomas.

The Wolverines season ended Tuesday, but continuing signs of improvement can be seen. The Wolverines were 0-12 in league two years ago, and after finishing 4-8 last year, improved to 5-7 this year. Their performance this year was good enough to secure the Wolverines their first playoff bid in 5 years. Although the Wolverines did not make it past the wildcard round, they lost in a valiant, record-setting effort.

The Wolverine Varsity Baseball team will look forward to next year with many new freshmen joining the team and the ever-improving play of sophomore, Austin Wilson.

The Wolverines, however, will lose many players to college. Senior starting pitchers Eric Shultz and Nik Turley will be going off to Yale and BYU respectively, while second baseman Chris Tennenbaum will be going to Claremont McKenna next year. Shortstop Colin Weidmann will be going to West Point Academy and starting outfielder, Afam Ibekwe, will be going to Puget Sound. Josh Lloyd, who got his first hit of his Varsity career in the Wolverine’s second to last game of the year, will be attending University of Indiana. Finally, Catcher Danny Kim, who caught all 20 innings of Tuesday’s game, will play at California Lutheran University next year. All of these Wolverine starters will look to continue their great baseball play at the collegiate level.

In all, the Wolverines should be proud of their improving season as they finished 4^th in the toughest CIF league and made the playoffs for the first time in 5 years.

Harvard Westlake looks to continue their success in the 2009 season under Head Coach Matt LaCour.