Blake Laurita
Staff Writer
The Boras Classic anually pits 16 high school baseball teams from Southern California against 16 of the best baseball programs from Northern California, and this year, Costa came out on top.
Senior pitcher Roland Houseman played a vital role by only allowing one run in the Mustangs victory over Junipero Serra in the Boras Classic on April 1. The win moved the Mustangs’ ranking from 19 to number one in high school baseball in the country in the medium school division on Maxpreps, a website with information on all high school sports across the country. Houseman was subsequently voted SoCal Prep Legends Boys athlete of the Week after his performance in the tournament.
“We have a very talented team but I believe that we won because of our heart and determination,” Houseman said. “All of our minds were in the right place.”
Houseman’s performance in Costa’s win over Serra earned him 5,343 votes for athlete of the week. Houseman received over a thousand votes more than the second place player, Travis Weston of Moorpark High School.
“I feel very honored to be given this award, especially since we were able to get the entire community to place a vote for me,” Houseman said.
The 5,343 votes that were placed for Houseman are accredited to his pitching in this southern division championship game in The Boras Classic. The news of his performance was spread by the baseball team who sent the link of the survey to the community through text messages.
“Roland definitely deserved being named athlete of the week because he has been working hard every day at practice and always has a great attitude which gave him the confidence to play the way he did,” junior pitcher Matt Besera said.
Houseman pitched six innings, allowing one run on four hits and one walk with five strikeouts in the victory over Junipero Serra, 2-1. According to Houseman he had confidence in the calls that his catcher, senior Brett Davis, made during the game which helped him play successfully.
“Roland is a competitor and every single pitch that he threw that game was his best pitch,” Davis said. “He held himself to a high standard during the biggest game of our season this year and absolutely killed it.”
The Lion’s offense, attained 28 runs in its previous three games, but in the Boras Classic finals, Houseman held them to one run. Houseman has snappy off-speed pitching style and always mixes up his pitches, which never allows the batter to adjust, Costa baseball coach Cassidy Olson said.
“I honestly never thought about the possibility of losing until I was subbed out. Whenever I’m on the mound, my mind is nothing but competitive,” Houseman said.
According to Olson, he started Houseman against Junipero Serra because of his slow pitching style that a Division 1 team, like Junipero Serra, would not be used to.
“This was one of the biggest pressure performances in the history of our school,” Olson said “He had such great poise and was the perfect pitcher for that game.”
After defeating Serra in the South Division championship game the Mustangs will face the North Division tournament winners, Davis High School in the overall championship, on May 7 at the University of California, Berkeley.
“My teammates always encourage me so I have an obligation to reciprocate by having a strong pitching performance,” Houseman said. “I pitched well, but I would not have been able to without the support of my team.”
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