Baseball: Young pitchers gaining attention at Alemany

Mission Hills Alemany has a couple of young pitchers to watch this spring in baseball.

Kyle Merkel, a 6-foot-3 sophomore right-hander who was the team's top junior varsity pitcher as a freshman, was impressive enough over the summer that USC has started expressing interest. He's expected to contend for the No. 2 spot in the varsity rotation.

Freshman Josh Garcia, another right-hander, was in North Caroline over the summer competing for age-group national team.

-- Eric Sondheimer