The Sea View League senior all-star baseball team didn't have very many highlights against the Empire League in one of the Ryan Lemmon Foundation Showcase games Friday night at Windrow Park.

The Empire League jumped out to an early lead and went on to a 10-3 victory.

There was however the fifth and sixth innings pitched by Northwood High ace Zack Weiss.

Weiss faced six batters and struck out all six. All six went down swinging.

"That was pretty good," Northwood Coach Rob Stuart said. "What a great memory for him. He stepped it up today. That was fun to watch. He was throwing the ball by guys."

His first victim was Katella's Hayden Stevens. Pacifica's Dylan Way followed, failing on three straight pitches. Weiss struck out Katella's Aaron David to end the top of the fifth inning.

Weiss took care of Chris Giamarino of Valencia, Cypress' P.J. Purtle and Loara's Jared Heurkins in the sixth inning.

"That was fun," Weiss said. "I came out and threw a lot of strikes with my fastball. I just got ahead of guys."

Weiss, who was tossing his fastball in the 90's, said the string of K's even surprised him.

"I never have struck out six in a row," he said. "I struck out the side in our playoff game at Mayfair and that was something. This was my best."

He said it was a moment he will never forget.

"I didn't even know how much I was going to pitch tonight," Weiss said. "I saw early on the board that I was going to pitch two innings. I just tried to make the most of it. This was a great way to finish my high school career.
 

"We had a great season at Northwood, winning two playoff games. And then to come out here and do this was fun. It was nice to throw the ball well.

It was just another step in the meteoric rise of Weiss over the last two seasons.

Weiss didn't even play baseball as a sophomore at Northwood because of an ACL injury in football.

He picked up velocity on his fastball in his junior year, but it was over the summer between his junior and senior year that he turned heads.

Weiss' fastball was even harder - with more movement and he learned to throw a better breaking ball.

"My junior year I was probably topping out at 91 miles per hour and consistently around 85-86," Weiss said. "This year I was throwing consistently at 89 up to 92 and was spotting (the fastball) better."

Weiss has so much potential still that he was picked in the 10th round of the recent Major League Baseball Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates, although he will most likely be heading to pitch on scholarship at UCLA next season.

"He is still a young arm," Stuart said. "He really only pitched for us in a year and a half. I have said it before. He is probably the most underrated, high upside guy around."

Other local players competing for the Sea View League were Woodbridge's Chad Ludwig, Matt Pence, Nick Martin and Matt Rowatt and Northwood's Mitch Oshima, Bryce Hara and Kyle Purzycki.
 

Ludwig started at shortstop, Rowatt started at catcher and Purzycki started in the outfield for the Sea View League. Purzycki also had a hit in the game, singling in the bottom of the fourth inning.