Huntington Beach’s Trent Grindlinger makes Team USA 18U baseball roster

Trent Grindlinger said he was the most scared and nervous he’d ever been in his life.

The incoming senior at Huntington Beach High was one of 84 baseball players who went into a meeting room recently at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C.

“The coach has a list of names, and he talks for a bit and just reads off the 20 names,” Grindlinger said. “I was so blessed to be called.”

Grindlinger, a catcher, made the roster for the USA Baseball 18U National Team on July 21 following the completion of training champ. He and his teammates will head to Panama this week for the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation U-18 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier, which begins Friday.

Grindlinger is one of five players from Southern California on the team, joining Ethin Bingaman of Redlands, Gavin Fien of Temecula, Quentin Young of Camarillo and his good friend, Brady Murrietta of Yorba Linda.

Murrietta, who attends Orange Lutheran High, is the other catcher on the team.

“It’s going to be a great experience in Panama,” said Grindlinger, a Mississippi State commit. “I’m super-ready to go win a gold medal.”

A team captain for the Oilers, he batted .333 this past spring with a team-best 13 doubles, three triples and 30 runs batted in. Grindlinger helped Huntington Beach (24-10) reach the semifinals of both the CIF Southern Section Division 1 and CIF State SoCal Regional Division I playoffs.

His younger brother Jared, a rising incoming sophomore for Huntington Beach, made the 12U national team in 2021.

“When I was 12, I got cut from [the national team], then this year I made it,” Trent Grindlinger said. “I’ve always wanted to be [on it]. The 18U team, that’s what everybody dreams of, so I was so super-excited, and I’m super-excited to go to Panama and compete.”