Baseball: Hartunian leading Montclair Prep

IS HARTUNIAN MONTCLAIR PREP'S NEXT MAJOR LEAGUER?

The field he plays on bears his name, which will make it hard to leave behind, but is Montclair Prep's Matt Hartunian bound for USC or Major League Baseball? If history has anything to do with it, Matt's next stop could be the MLB draft on June 9th. Major League Alumni from Prep include Torey Lovullo, Russ Ortiz and Brad Fullmer, who holds Prep's homerun record of 31, which Matt made a valiant run at (26). Matt is a four year Varsity starter with an overall high school batting avg. of .479, 139 RBI, 26 HR, 79 2B, and an on base percentage over .670. At 5'11", 200 lbs, Matt is the quintessential catcher, although, he can play anywhere, including the mound. Of Matt's prowess behind the dish, MCP head coach Rick Weber says, "Hartunian is a power hitting catcher, which is rare, and with a pop time under 2.0 seconds, nobody runs on us...nobody!" Leading us to an opening round win against Lompoc this past Tuesday, Matt was 3-3 raising this year's batting avg. to nearly .600. Ex-pro coach Daylon Monette says, "The ball just jumps off his bat. I've never seen anyone in high school with his approach to hitting." Monette is pushing Matt to go pro...Matt says, "Let the cards fall where they fall, I can play anywhere!" June 9th can't come soon enough.