2017 Perfect Game High School Preview Index
No. 5 Huntington Beach Oilers (Huntington Beach, Calif.)
State Association/League: California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section Division 1/Sunset League
Head Coach: Benjamin Medure (17th season as head coach)
2016 Results: 20-11 overall; 9-6 Sunset League; CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs 2nd round
Key Losses: SS Chad Minato (Harvard); CIF/RHP Logan Pouelsen (Hawaii); 2B Dom Abbadessa (Toronto Blue Jays); OF Landon Silver (UC Santa Barbara); OF JJ Muratore (Loyola Marymount)
Top Returning Players: Sr. RHP/C Hagen Danner (UCLA); Sr. LHP/1B Nick Pratto (Southern Cal); Sr. LHP/OF Cory Moore (Santa Clara); Sr. OF Ben McConnell (Cal State San Marcos). Top Additions: Jr. RHP Kenny Kim; So. LHP/OF Josh Hahn; So. LHP/OF Dylan Ramirez
Notable Matchups: March 4 vs. Orange Lutheran; March 11 vs. JSerra Catholic (2); March 28-April 1 vs. USA Baseball National High School Invitational at Cary, N.C.; April 5-May 11 vs. Sunset League play; April 18-21 vs. Boras Classic
… … …
EVEN 17-YEAR HEAD COACH BENJI MEDURE CAN’T HELP BUT SMILE and maybe even shake his head a little bit when he looks back on the progress his program at Huntington Beach High School has made over the last seven or eight years.
“Here’s the thing: We were so bad,” Medure told Perfect Game last week, chuckling under his breath at the memory. “We were so bad for so many years and we really struggled. I think we had two winning seasons in my first nine years … but since then it’s been pretty good.
“We’ve had a good influx of talent and support from the community with our new stadium getting built (it opened in 2016), and it’s just been a whirlwind of good stuff and good things happening for us.”
Good things, indeed. The Huntington Beach Oilers will open the 2017 season at the end of February as the No. 5 team in the Perfect Game High School Preseason National Top 50 Rankings. It’s the fourth straight year they have opened in the top-20 and the third straight they begin play ranked in the top-five; their highest final ranking came in 2015 at No. 11.
It’s been quite a turn-around for a program that must earn its keep every day battling in CIF Southern Section Division 1. That's a region in Southern California that annually produces national championship-caliber teams that boast rosters loaded with many of the country’s top college and MLB draft prospects.
HBHS is in possession of such a roster in 2017, despite the loss of five prospects that moved on to either professional baseball or the college ranks (see above). But eight starters – a mix of position players and pitchers – return, led by a core of standout seniors: right-hander/catcher Hagen Danner, left-hander/first baseman Nick Pratto, left-hander/outfielder Cory Moore, outfielder Ben McConnell, and infielders Trevor Windisch and Dylan Palmer.
Team statistics from the 2016 season were not immediately available for use here, but both Danner and Pratto were First Team All-CIF Southern Section D-1 selections at season’s end; both also have played with Team USA squads in the past.
It is also worth noting that four players – Danner, Windisch, Palmer and junior left-hander Nate Madole – played in the 2015 CIF Southern Section D-1 championship game against Hart High School (Newhall), a 3-1 title-winning victory for the Oilers. The experience of playing for a CIF Section championship as young underclassmen is especially valuable today.
“We’re pumped,” Medure said of the upcoming season. “We are so pumped that we’ve become a program where we’re getting calls from Perfect Game and Baseball America and we’re going to North Carolina for the third consecutive year.”
Medure was referring to the USA Baseball National High School Invitational (NHSI) held annually in Cary, N.C., that includes 16 of the top teams from across the nation. The Oilers were first invited to the elite tournament in 2015 when they finished 3-1; they returned last March and went 4-0, including a 7-2 victory over Chaminade College Prep School (Mo.) in the championship game.
They will be joined at the event this year by fellow California powerhouses Orange Lutheran (Orange) and South Hills (West Covina).
But before that title, and even before the 2015 CIF Southern Section D-1 championship, there were stepping-stone championships. Medure recalled winning a local Orange County tournament in the spring of 2012 and how elated everyone associated with the program was because it was the first tournament championship HBHS had won during Medure’s then 12-year tenure.
The following year, the Oilers were invited to the National Classic Tournament in Anaheim, Calif., and returned to win that championship in 2014. That was followed with the CIF Southern Section championship in 2015 and the NHSI championship in their second trip to Cary just last March.
“It’s just been a growing thing where we keep getting better and we keep exceeding our expectations of what’s possible here,” Medure said. “And we’re really excited about our team this year.”
He is especially excited about having Danner and Pratto back to lead the team for a second straight season. They are both highly regarded nationally – PG ranks Danner, a UCLA signee, No. 42 in the 2017 class and Pratto, a USC signee, No. 65 – and were standouts playing with USA Baseball.
Danner, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound right-hander from Huntington Beach, delivered 93 mph fastballs while pitching for the EvoShield Canes and earning all-tournament recognition at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., in October.
That kind of experience can be nothing but beneficial to Medure’s way of thinking, especially when playing on the big stages at the NHSI, the annual Boras Classic in Southern California and, of course, at the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
And it should not be forgotten that the biggest moment in Huntington Beach baseball history before the Oilers won the 2015 CIF Southern Section D-1 championship came when the Huntington Beach-based Ocean View team won the 2011 Little League World Series Championship. Current Oilers Danner, Pratto, Windisch, Palmer and senior Justin Cianca were on that Ocean View team.
“There is no substitute for being there before and knowing what to expect and not getting overwhelmed by the moment,” Medure said, speaking specifically about the Oilers’ 2016 NHSI championship. “Their experience and their leadership – being able to talk to people and be like, ‘Hey, this is what you’re going to feel’ – it’s kind of like (veteran) David Ross for the Cubs. You saw (Anthony) Rizzo go up and talk to him in the middle of Game 7 in the World Series, and it’s kind of the same thing.
“These kids have been there before and they’re going to have a slower pace than everyone else on the field, and they’ll be able to think correctly and react accordingly.”
While Medure certainly expects to rely heavily on his core group of seniors, a talented junior class led by right-hander Kenny Kim and the lefty Madole, and sophomore left-handers Josh Hahn and Dylan Ramirez are going to be counted on to contribute.
Hahn and Ramirez were terrific on the freshman team a year ago, and Medure noted they probably would have been promoted to the varsity had there been room for them.
“We wanted them to play; we didn’t want them to sit,” he said. “They’re seasoned pitchers and position players and they’re ready to step-in and contribute – I think they would be starters on a lot of teams and they’re going to be significant role players for us. So, it’s going to be a good mix of senior leadership with talented newcomers, and it sets us nicely for the next couple of years.”
It’s interesting that after starting the 2015 season as PG’s No. 4-ranked team, the Oilers lost five of their first seven games before heading east to North Carolina. They righted the ship with three wins on the Right Coast and ended up capturing the first CIF championship of any kind in the program’s 107-year history later that spring.
Perfect Game – and several other ranking services – placed HBHS No. 1 in its 2016 preseason rankings, and it was much more of the same. The Oilers again stumbled out of the blocks – this time losing four-of-seven – but again gained traction by winning the NHSI in Cary; they advanced to the second round of the 2016 CIF playoffs.
No one should be shocked if the same thing happens again this season. After opening play with a pair of games at Aliso Niguel on Feb. 25, the Oilers play three of their next seven games against nationally ranked Orange Lutheran and JSerra Catholic before hopping on a plane and heading to North Carolina.
“We have quite possibly the toughest schedule in America and … if we can win half of those games I’ll be pumped,” Medure said. “We want to be able to play the best and I’ve always said that if you want to be the best you’ve got to beat the best, and we definitely have that on our schedule; we’re not going to shy away from anybody.
“All of our seniors, they’ve all been on a big stage and they thrive in those situations,” he concluded. "We’re looking to be national champs this year and that’s just the mindset of everyone in our program.”