By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

CARY, NC—The 2017 National High School Invitational commenced Wednesday with eight first-round games, pitting some of the country’s top high school teams against each other. With it being a single elimination, bracket format, most teams sent their aces to the hill so there was no shortage of pitching to see.

When the first-round matchups were revealed over the last few weeks, everyone circled the game between Dana Hills HS, CA, and Cullman HS, AL. Both have top pitching prospects in the rotation and the potential showdown came to fruition with RHP Hans Crouse (Dana Hills HS, CA) and LHP Jacob Heatherly (Cullman HS, AL) being announced as starters earlier in the week. However, like most hyped pitching duels, it didn’t live up to expectations. Crouse and Heatherly struggled with their command and secondary stuff and the game started sloppily overall.