American 10s open Nor Cals with another no-hitter

American is getting accustomed to the no-no results. In the District 52 championship game, Matthew Ward fired a complete-game no-hitter. The duo of Conor Workman and Jagger O’Brien followed that with a no-hitter in the Section 3 championship game. Sunday night in Turlock, Ward, Workman and O’Brien all combined on the feat — not that you could tell be the team’s reaction after O’Brien finished off the game with the team’s 14th strikeout of the game.

“Pretty business like,” San Mateo American manager Jason Gordon said. “We had to tell them again they threw a no-hitter. They had no idea. So, it’s getting to be a common theme.”

The pitching-heavy American squad took the small-ball approach at the plate.

In the second, William Meza stole home on a wheel steal, with Zach Marinec getting caught in a rundown between first and second to give Meza a chance to break for home.

In the third, American loaded the bases for Hudson Wong, who reached on a catcher’s interference to force a run home; Meza then drove home a run on a fielder’s choice; and Ward scored on a throwing error.

In the fifth, Aidan Yoshino executed a squeeze play with a fine bunt for an RBI; and Marinec followed with a booming RBI double.

“We definitely small-balled them to death,” Gordon said.

American’s arms did the rest. Ward worked two innings and Workman went 2 2/3. Chris Moreno entered with two outs in the fifth but walked three straight batters — including walking in McKinleyville’s only run of the game — before O’Brien entered to get the last four outs.

“It was a pretty dominating performance by all three of the guys,” Gordon said.

American is in prime position after drawing the nine-team tournament’s lone opening-round bye. With the Nor Cal tourney being the final stage of the 10s All-Stars season, American is now two wins away from a state championship.

“We got a massive break,” Gordon said. “And then we were able to keep all our pitchers under 35 (pitches), so we’ve got all out pitchers available for the winners’ bracket final Tuesday.”

American faces Los Altos Tuesday at 7 p.m. The winner will advance to Thursday’s championship round.

American 12s fall to elimination bracket

After a win in Saturday’s Northern California State 12-and-under tournament opener, San Mateo American fell to the elimination bracket Sunday with a 7-3 loss to Tri-City.

Tri-City of Rocklin marched out ace Brandon Williams, who needed just 59 pitches to cruise through five innings. Williams also supplied the power, giving is team an early lead with a three-run home run in the first inning.

American kept it close until the fourth, when center fielder Evan Gilbert nearly turned in the defensive play of the summer. Tri-City had the bases loaded with two outs, and Jerry Jumelet sent a towering fly ball to the wall in deep center. Gilbert tracked it and had the ball in his glove as he crashed into the center-field wall, but the crash jarred the ball loose and over the wall for a grand slam to break it open.

“That really opened the door,” San Mateo American manager Paul Witten said. “It made it really difficult. … It would have been interesting to see if he was able to hold onto the ball.”

American now falls to the elimination bracket in the seven-team tournament at Pajaro Valley Little League in Watsonville. Next up is an elimination game against Sunrise/Delta Monday night at 7:45 p.m.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Witten said. “We have to play, if we end up winning this thing, it means we’ll play seven days in a row. So, it’s going to be hard.”

American has faced these odds before. In the District 52 tournament, American dropped the opening game to Hillsborough, only to win seven straight elimination games to ultimately triumph over Hillsborough with two straight wins in the championship round.

American opened the tournament Saturday with a 14-4 mercy-rule win over Visalia. Landon King earned the win on the mound and was not available to pitch Sunday.

“We would have needed him against [Tri-City] because that guy (Williams) is that good,” Witten said.

After American opened with a four-run first inning, King dropped the hammer in the fourth inning with booming three-run home run to right-center. It was the first home run of the All-Stars season for the left-handed slugger. Willy Folau finished off the win, tagging a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth for the mercy-rule walk-off.