April 6, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
On March 28, the Gahr High baseball team rallied for five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge Ayala High and claim the consolation championship of the Boras Baseball Classic. Five days later, the Gladiators were at it again, this time in The National Classic with another late inning comeback.
Trailing La Habra High 6-2 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Gladiators erupted for seven runs and held off a late attempt by the Highlanders to post a 9-7 victory. Coupled with a 4-3 win over Mountain Ridge High the next day, Gahr finds itself at 6-7 as it begins Gateway League action this week against Downey High.
“I think we have a group of guys that can come together and rally from [any deficit],” said Gahr head coach Gerardo Perez. “I think we have a collection of guys that can battle back from being down and hit their way back into the game. In the past, maybe I didn’t have so many hitters. Now I do.”
La Habra scored once in each of the first two innings before the Gladiators tied the game in the third on a two-out, two-run single from junior first baseman Bryce Morrison, plating senior center fielder Taison Miller and junior third baseman Andres Gonzalez, both of whom were walked.
The Highlanders would score three times in the fifth and once in the sixth before the Gahr bats came alive and sent a dozen batters to the plate. It began with Morrison leading off with a double to left and advancing to third on a groundout from junior catcher Nathan Guangorena. Sophomore right fielder Evan Javier singled but Morrison couldn’t advance and after the second out, senior pinch hitter Ben Heapy was walked to load the bases.
Walks to senior pinch hitter Jake Ourique and Miller, respectively, allowed two runs to come across and an infield single from Gonzalez plated junior second baseman Julian Lucero. That was followed by another infield knock, this time from senior designated hitter Adrien Ramirez, making the score 7-6. With the bases loaded, Morrison was hit by a pitch and allowed Miller to tie the game before a single from Guangorena on a full count brought in Gonzalez and Ramirez.
“I’ve had teams like this where they struggle early…and then by the time the fifth, sixth and seventh inning rolls around, they kind of come back,” said Perez. “They’re really good in the third or fourth at-bat.”
The final game of the tournament was last Thursday, and the Gladiators scored three times in the top of the third as Gonzalez had a run-scoring single and Guangorena later had a two-out single to drive in Morrison and Ramirez. After the Glendale, AZ-based school added runs in the fifth and seventh to tie the game, a walk to Miller began the top of the ninth. He would move to second on an error one out later, Morrison’s base hit to left field brought in Miller for the game winner.
“I think we’re finding out how to win,” said Perez. “You don’t always have to swing the bat. Sometimes you have to be disciplined, and they’ll give it to you. And sometimes you have to swing the bat. I guess that’s a different level of offensive versatility, knowing when to take the pitch, knowing when to swing, knowing when to hit. I think we have a pretty good group that’s coming together, obviously with yesterday and today.”
While it’s not uncommon to see any Gahr team begin a season with a slow start, the Gladiators were shutout in their first three games and four in their first six as they failed to get a win against some of the best teams that the CIF-Southern Section has to offer. But winning the last three games of the Boras Baseball Classic, then three of four last week has put Gahr in a good position with 12 straight league contests ahead in the next four weeks.
Perez said this one of the toughest schedules he has had, having played Corona High, the top team in the nation, Harvard-Westlake High, Loyola High and Sierra Canyon High, to name a few. Then there is the equally brutal Gateway League with Bellflower High, Downey, La Mirada High and Warren High, plus single games with El Segundo High, Huntington Beach High and Orange Lutheran High in the last five days of the regular season. According to MaxPreps.com, Gahr’s 2025 schedule is the third toughest schedule in high school baseball with a 17.8 strength of schedule rating.
“I’ve had teams where they’re hot early; I’ve had teams where they’re hot late,” said Perez. “I think we’re good and we have a chance to come back from a deficit.
“I think all of high school baseball was cold at the start of the season,” he later said. “The game of high school baseball at the top has changed. It’s not the same as it was five years ago. We’re way better than we were but the teams at the top are getting transfers and are really deep; really strong. We got some transfers too, but it takes some time.”
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