2016 NHSI: Chaminade’s Costello Shuts Down Flanagan

Tommy Costello strikes out Dylan O’Connell with bases loaded to end the 5th. Chaminade 3, Flanagan 1. pic.twitter.com/JqNFnVxas3

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) March 23, 2016

CARY, N.C.—It’s been a tradition for more than 100 years. You take your best hitter and hit him third so he can both create offense by driving in the top of the lineup as well as getting on base to set up the cleanup hitter. And then you take your best power hitter and put him at cleanup.

But as Chaminade Prep coach Frank Mutz sees it, those traditional roles don’t necessarily serve his team’s best interest.

Welcome to the new wave of high school coaches steeped in analytics principles. As Mutz sees it, when you have maybe the best high school hitter in the country, you want him batting as many times as you can.

“It’s been paying off for us. If you’re going to play 30-40 games in a season, that’s 30-40 more at bats for Blake Rutherford and Nick Kahle? That’s another 10 home runs, another 10-20 doubles so it does work,” Mutz said.

So Rutherford, considered by many scouts to be the best high school hitter in the country, bats leadoff while Kahle, a Washington signee, bats second. It paid off handsomely in Chaminade’s 2016 NHSI opener as Rutherford singled to start the game and Kahle hit a two-run home run to left field to follow. Two batters into the game, Chaminade had the lead.

Nick Kahle gets Chaminade off to a great start. Homers after a Blake Rutherford single. 2-0 Chaminade. pic.twitter.com/ymQtXmZv7a

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) March 23, 2016

Lefthander Tommy Costello made sure they kept it as he held Flanagan High to a solitary run in Chaminade’s 3-1 win.

With the win, Chaminade advances to the second round of the National High School Invitational on Thursday.

“That was like March Madness. You lose and you’re done, so you better win the first game,” Costello said.

Costello dominated Flanagan’s hitters with his curveball. He’d spot his ,low-to-mid-80s fastball early in the count, but the Washington signee relied heavily on a big breaking curve that continually baffled hitters. Costello struck out 10 batters on the day.

None was bigger than his strikeout to finished the fifth. Flanagan had scored one run and loaded the bases with two out. With the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first, Costello struck out Dylan O’Connell to end the inning.

Flanagan didn’t get another hitter into scoring position in the final two innings. Facing a 105-pitch limit, Costello had a very efficient 1-2-3 seventh as he finished the game with 102 pitches.

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