Cathedral Catholic ‘one hit away' in SoCal Regional finals loss to Huntington Beach
HUNTINGTON BEACH - For the second time this week, Jared Grindlinger beat a San Diego Section baseball team in the playoffs.
On Tuesday, the Huntington Beach High School senior left-hander threw three shutout innings and had four hits, including a homer, as the Oilers ousted Patrick Henry from the Southern California Division 1 Regionals with more than 30 MLB scouts looking on.
There were no visible scouts on hand Saturday.
No matter.
Grindlinger slugged a two-run homer in the first inning, then came out of the bullpen to get the final out as seventh-seeded Huntington Beach beat eighth-seeded Cathedral Catholic 5-3 to capture the Division 1 Southern California Regional championship before a standing-room-only crowd.
Huntington Beach, ranked No. 8 in the state, finishes the season 25-8-1. Cathedral Catholic, ranked No. 12 in California, ends 28-7.
“We had a shot at the end,” said Cathedral Catholic coach Gary Remiker. “We put the pressure on them, made them bring in their best guy. We were one hit away.”
Trailing 5-0 heading into the top of the seventh, the Dons loaded the bases on walks by Ty Daniels, Jose Partida and Evan DePodesta.
That’s when the Oilers went to Grindlinger, a projected first-round pick in next month’s draft whose fastball hits 96 mph.
Daniels scored on a passed ball and Alex Harrington’s smash to second base was mishandled as Partida scored.
Josh Priest, who has carried the offensive load for the Dons all season, then struck out - but the ball eluded the catcher as Griffin Brown, running for DePodesta, scored.
But Grindlinger did what Grindlinger does best, striking out the next batter to end the game.
“I’m so proud of the way we battled back,” Remiker said.
The Dons edged Bellflower St. John Bosco, the No. 1 team in the state on Tuesday, then beat La Mirada on Friday.
“This was a phenomenal senior class,” Remiker said of a group that has 11 players with college scholarships.
“The pressure is on us to continue, but we have a great junior class coming back, have a bunch of juniors who didn’t play much, but are really talented. And the JV team was 23-5. So we have some guys.”
Saturday’s game was played at Huntington Beach’s funky but beautiful ballpark, which includes a screen over home plate to keep foul balls from going into the street, a hill up to the left-field fence, which is 275 feet away from the plate, and a center-field fence that’s just 365 feet from home.
The Dons got a great pitching effort from senior Kaden Kuhn, who is headed to Cornell. He made one bad pitch, going down and in to the left-hand-hitting Grindlinger, who homered to right field.
Offensively, the Dons left Harrington, who opened the game with a single and stole second, at second base. They left two more on in the second inning and had runners thrown out on the bases in the third and fourth.
“This is a tough loss,” said Harrington, who, along with his brother Hunter, is headed to Stanford. “But we lost to a really talented team, showed what we were about by not rolling over in the seventh inning.
“We had the go-ahead run at the plate and went down swinging. I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this group.”
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This story was originally published June 6, 2026 at 4:52 PM.