605 LEAGUE BASEBALL: John Glenn welcomes newest addition to team in blowout win over Whitney

Whitney High junior shortstop Jacob Nunag steals second base in the bottom of the first inning in last Friday’s 605 League contest against John Glenn High. Nunag, who would end up at third base on a wild pitch, was one of three players to reach base in the game as Glenn blanked the Wildcats 14-0. PHOTO BY HSIANG-LU CHEN.

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

The sit out period for baseball transfers in the CIF-Southern Section ended last Friday, just in time for John Glenn High to head to Cerritos Park East to face Whitney High in the back end of a 605 League home and home series. It was the debut of Glenn sophomore right fielder David Segura, a transfer from La Serna High, and he made the most of his first game with his new school. 

Segura doubled in his first two at-bats, drove in four runs, scored once and pitched the bottom of the sixth inning, striking out all three batters he faced on 14 pitches as the Eagles blanked the Wildcats 14-0. Glenn only got eight hits, but was aided by seven errors, six walks issued by Whitney hurlers and four hit batters.

“I knew that we had the potential,” said Glenn head coach Ken Mason. “We’ve been playing really good defense; we’ve had really good pitching, [but] our offense hasn’t been there. We’ve been working on it; being more aggressive at the plate and attacking. So I knew we had this potential. I don’t think it was Whitney’s day today; I think they’re a much better team. Just a lot of credit to them. I took this series really seriously.”

Mason was quick to remember that last season’s league opener was a 9-4 loss at Whitney before the Eagles bounced back with a 10-0 win later in the week on a combined no hitter from then-juniors Bert Alvarado, who worked the first four innings, and James Alvarez, who pitched the fifth.

“I don’t think it affected the players that much; they’ve got a short-term memory,” said Mason. “But for me, I knew Whitney was getting better. So I wasn’t really concerned on that loss last year. I just knew that this team this year…that we were facing was a much better team.”

Whitney fell to Glenn 4-3 on Mar. 24 in the league opener despite a complete game from junior Jacob Nunag. This was the first time the Wildcats had not scored this season and the worst loss they have suffered in 2026.

“Honestly, it’s very hard to explain,” said Whitney head coach Tristan Chen. “I’ve been telling these guys all year, you have to nut up. This is a completely different team than the ones I’ve seen. In the sixth inning, we’re a completely different team. But after that, when there’s pressure on, it’s a completely different team.

“That’s why I think baseball is greatest sport in the world,” he continued. “Because there is no other sport that teaches you how to nut up; how to man up, how to perform when there’s pressure. And today, instead of the pressure coming in the sixth or seventh inning, it came in the first.”

With one out in the top of the first inning, Segura doubled to left field on the third pitch he saw from sophomore Titus Fernando. Two pitches later, senior pitcher Evan Perez doubled him home and an error allowed Alvarado, the left fielder, to reach first base as Perez made it 2-0.

In the next inning, again with one out, junior catcher Marcos Quiroz was hit by a pitch, sophomore center fielder Michael Perez singled and senior third baseman Jonah Mason beat out an infield hit to load the bases. That set the stage for Segura, who roped a double to deep center to clear the bases as the Eagles increased their score to 5-0.

“It was exciting to get back here after the sit out period to help the team,” said Segura. “I just want to help out the team in any way.

“I didn’t really know what to expect after coming off a month of not playing,” he later said. “I just wanted to hit the ball hard.”

“We know David is a stud,” said Mason. “He’s a humble, young man, has a 4.0 [grade point average] and is quiet. You could barely get anything out of him. But he’s just excited and is a great teammate. He was a spark plug for us today. Getting that double early gave us some breathing room with the two runs. Then when he hit that laser [in the second], it was like ‘okay, we can compete’. We just talked all week about compete; be a lion, not a gazelle.”

Despite the early game woes Fernando showed he could also dominate opposing hitters as he struck out six of the first seven outs he recorded. But after walking Quiroz with one out in the third and seeing two more runs score on errors, Chen replaced him with junior Darsh Maheshwari.

“I knew that he was good; he’s got a really good curveball, and we were really having trouble with the curveball,” said Ken Mason of Fernando. “David was a spark plug; he’s a really good hitter and he kind of energized us and helped us see that, ‘hey we can compete, we can hit this kid’. But then just for our batters to be a little more disciplined; they just had to sit, sit and expect curveball, and then adjust to the fastball.”

With Glenn (5-7, 2-0) comfortably up 7-0 after three innings, the other story of the game was Evan Perez, who walked Nunag to open the bottom of the first, gave up a two-out single to junior right fielder Kavi Stris in the second and walked freshman designated hitter Jeremy Metz with two outs in the fourth. Only Nunag was able to advance past first base as he stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. Evan Perez threw 72 pitches, 48 being strikes, and struck out eight batters.

“Even is elevating his game also,” said Mason. “We need him to be a guy for us and over the past couple of starts, he’s really starting to lock in. His hitting is starting to lock in as well.”

“I respect Glenn a lot and they adjusted,” said Chen. “After Tuesday, I was expecting a lot of the same Glenn where I could just run out there and call the same pitches I was calling, basically pitch all over. But this is an entirely different Glenn. They were expecting, but they just weren’t expecting, they were adjusting, and that came as a huge shock to me.”

Chen continued to give praise to the pitching staff and was expecting to see Alvarado instead of Evan Perez.

“He’s dog, he’s dog; that’s all I have to say about him,” said Chen of Evan Perez. “He came out there and made his pitches. I mean he was pumping, spotted the fastballs and spotted the curveballs. That’s all you really have to do, and he did it.”

The Eagles added a run in the fourth and put the game away with half a dozen tallies in the sixth as 11 batters came to the plate. No other player had more than a hit, but senior pinch hitter Brandon Castello came off the bench to drive in two of those six runs in the sixth inning, and junior pinch hitter Andre Romo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth.

The Eagles, who are now 7-1 lifetime against the Wildcats, having outscored them 78-14 with four shutouts, will face Artesia High this week. The Pioneers swept Glenn last season, halting any postseason chance Glenn may have had.

“I have huge respect for Artesia,” said Ken Mason. “The last two years, we’ve been swept by them and that’s kept us out of the playoffs. We think we can compete with them. We’re on a three-game winning streak and I think the boys are starting to believe that they belong. But we’re taking Artesia very seriously [and] being swept the last two years is definitely in the back of our heads.”

Meanwhile, Whitney (4-9, 0-2) will face Pioneer High this week after a non-league tilt against St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy. Despite the blowout loss Chen, who graduated from Cerritos High in 2024, knows the Wildcats are improving as a program. Half of their previous eight losses have been by a combined five runs. Whitney also has a milestone or two it could reach by the end of the season. The program has not won seven games since 2019 and n=has not reached 10 wins since 2017.

“I don’t want them thinking about the big picture,” said Chen. “I told them that’s for me and coach Henry [Harms] to think about. [The coaches] need to think about the big picture. But for you as a player, you need to worry about winning the pitch and winning the play.

“Oh yeah, 100 percent,” he later said of the improvement. “Just look at the OPS and look at the team ERA. Before I came, the team OPS was about .500, .530 and when I came last year, it was in the .800 range. I know that for sure and I know my system works; coach Henry’s system works. He’s done a great job on defense. You could look at the errors from last year to this year and they have almost completely gone, at least errors before [this game]. I know my system works; I can develop them. But the problem is on the mental side. I would say we have made huge strides, absolutely huge strides. But coming into this year, the mentality has changed. These guys are hitting; these guys are staying in the box, taking pitches and they know what to do.”