Baseball: Local teams set to compete in national tournament

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The first National High School Invitational baseball tournament gets underway on Wednesday in Cary, N.C., with Harvard-Westlake, Mater Dei and Orange Lutheran among the teams participating.

Harvard-Westlake was spending early Tuesday on a campus tour of Duke before practicing.

Orange Lutheran is the hottest team entering the tournament after sweeping its three Trinity League games last week. The Lancers have benefited from the return of pitcher Brent Wheatley, who had been injured. He joins Art Moran-Vidrio and Garett King in giving Orange Lutheran a very impressive three-person starting trio.

Mater Dei is used to these national tournaments and handling the pressure.

Seven games will be streamed live by USABaseball.com, including Wednesday’s games involving Harvard-Wstlake vs. Russell County at 10 a.m. and Mater Dei vs. Bishop Gorman at 1:30 p.m.

-- Eric Sondheimer