Hunter Manning lives so close to the West Ranch High baseball field that he can hear sounds of balls being hit in the batting cage at night.
He decided to attend Sherman Oaks Notre Dame as a freshman, requiring 6:30 a.m. wake-up calls and enduring traffic jams on the 5 Freeway. Now he sleeps until 7:45 a.m. without being late to walk to school and is playing with lifelong friends.
He’s headed to UC Irvine in the fall to pitch and only wishes he could take catcher Nolan Stoll with him. Manning struck out 12 on Wednesday with Stoll calling the pitches in West Ranch’s 3-1 win over Hart in a battle for first place in the Foothill League. West Ranch is 16-8 and 8-1.
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It was by accident that Stoll started calling pitches for Manning earlier this season when the PitchCom communication device malfunctioned. It worked out so well that Stoll was allowed to continue to call the pitches for the rest of this season for Manning even though he still wears a wire and receives instructions from the dugout to move fielders. With Stoll in charge, Manning struck out a school-record 16 batters against Valencia and then came Wednesday’s effort.
“He called an awesome game,” Manning said.
Stoll is a Stanford commit with a grade-point average out of this world. Manning’s 3.8 GPA probably wouldn’t get him to Stanford, so he’ll need to figure a plan to take Stoll with him to Irvine.
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“Sadly, I can’t,” he said.
Omar Gutierrez had a two-run first-inning single for West Ranch. Hart (11-9, 6-2) got two hits and an unearned run off Manning in the first inning, then saw him strike out eight consecutive batters.
The two teams meet again Friday at Hart.
St. John Bosco 2, Mater Dei 1: The Braves got a walk-off bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the eighth inning. Gavin Cervantes threw all eight innings for the Braves.
Santa Margarita 5, JSerra 1: A three-run triple by Warren Gravely IV in the top of the ninth inning keyed the Eagles’ Trinity League win. Ben Finnegan finished with a double and triple.
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Newport Harbor 5, Huntington Beach 2: Lucas Perez, Adam Martin and Keoni Wun each had two hits to knock off No. 1 Huntington Beach.
El Dorado 4, Cypress 0: Logan Steenburgen threw the shutout, striking out two and walking none. Diego Gonzalez hit a two-run home run.
Foothill 4, El Modena 1: Sean Green hit a three-run walk-off home run in the 10th inning.
Edison 3, Corona del Mar 1: Gavin Johnson hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning for Edison.
Etiwanda 1, Rancho Cucamonga 0: Luke Mendoza hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning for the game’s only run. Michael Aleman threw eight innings with nine strikeouts for Etiwanda.
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Chino Hills 1, Damien 0: Brody Buoncristiani and Matt McCliman combined on a two-hit shutout.
Los Osos 10, Upland 4: Roberto Topete finished with four hits to lead Los Osos.
Summit 5, Grand Terrace 3: Dylan Harrison and Ian Stewart each had two RBIs for Summit (20-3), which has won 17 straight games.
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 4, La Salle 0: J. Beckett Berg threw a complete game, striking out eight with no walks.
Crespi 8, Saugus 2: Jackson Eisenhauer threw four scoreless innings with five strikeouts, making it 47 innings without giving up an earned run this season for Crespi (17-1). Josh Stonehouse had three hits.
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Sierra Canyon 11, Kennedy 1: Freshman Kingston Monette struck out 11 in six innings. Dezi Delgado had four RBIs.
Mira Costa 5, West Torrance 1: Ace Tarango had three hits and Aiden Pinn threw four innings of scoreless relief. Mira Costa is 20-2 and 9-1 in the Bay League.
Vista Murrieta 3, Murrieta Valley 0: Jonas Jusay threw 6 2/3 innings, striking out four.
Cleveland 7, Granada Hills 3: Four Cleveland pitchers combined for a no-hitter. Joshua Pearlstein led the way with five hitless innings.
El Camino Real 10, Taft 2: Luke Howe, Troy Shaw and Adan Viner each contributed two RBIs for El Camino Real.
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Birmingham 1, Chatsworth 0: The Patriots won on a walk-off from Cristian Martinez in the eighth inning. Allen Olmos threw the shutout.
Royal 9, Oak Park 0: Dustin Dunwoody threw the shutout. Brady Hewitt had three RBIs.
Warren 2, Gahr 1: Max Ruiz had the walk-off single in the seventh for Warren.
La Habra 5, Yorba Linda 0: Isaac Aguirre struck out eight, walked none and threw a four-hit shutout.
Long Beach Millikan 6, Long Beach Poly 3: Anthony Pack had two RBIs for the Rams, who are 8-1 in the Moore League.
Long Beach Wilson 7, Lakewood 0: The Bruins stayed unbeaten in the Moore League. Ben Howard threw a five-hitter.
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Carson 11, Banning 3: Kiarah Chukwudi had a home run and three RBIs for Carson. Giselle Pantoja struck out six.
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Granada Hills 20, Taft 4: Alana Miller had four RBIs and Zoe Justman had four hits for the Highlanders.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
