Amoroso joins the no-hit parade

“It’s been a weird week,” said Woodside manager Dan Rogers. “It’s pretty cool. No-hitters are few and far between as it is, but to get two in two games is crazy.”

The Wildcats become the second Peninsula Athletic League team to accomplish no-hitters in back-to-back games. South City’s Gabe Martin threw a no-no Feb. 27, also against Mission. In the Warriors’ next start March 7, Giovanni Bernal threw a perfect game in a win over Jefferson.

Amoroso took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before hitting a batter to end that quest. The no-hitter was still in effect, however, and he finished it off on just 80 pitches — striking out 14 along the way.

“Right as I threw my first pitch in the bullpen, I just felt good,” Amoroso said.

And he wasn’t messing around. Amoroso averaged 11.4 pitches per inning and, of his 80 pitches, 62 were for strikes. Amoroso said he mostly relied on his fastball to simply overpower the Bears’ batters.

“I gained a good amount of velo (since last season),” Amoroso said. “Every time I strike someone out, it boosts my energy.”

After he retired the side to start the game, Amoroso’s offense gave him an instant cushion with which to work, scoring twice in the bottom of the first. Woodside (5-1 overall) scored single runs in the third and fourth innings before breaking things open with a three-run fifth. Evan Chad led the offense, going 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI. Dakota Ellis also drove in a run.

But the story was Amoroso, who was perfect after four innings.

Then he started to think about it.

“In the fifth, I was thinking I had a perfect game. And then I hit the kid,” Amoroso said. “After I hit him, I just ignored it. I still had the no-hitter going. They just let me keep going.”

Rogers said his plan was get his bullpen some work and was planning to go to it early. But Amoroso kept setting the Washington lineup down in order and so he rode his starter.

“After we got past the third inning and no one was on base, [the perfect game] started creeping into my head,” Rogers said.

And despite the hit batter, Rogers never really thought about replacing Amoroso.

“He had the no-hitter intact, he was way under his pitch limit, so I just let him go,” Rogers said.

Amoroso said he is trying to prove he belongs in a starting role for the Wildcats. A frosh-soph call-up midway through his sophomore year last season, Amoroso saw only two innings of work on the mound. Coming into this season, he wants to show that he can be a front-line guy on a team that appears loaded with top-of-the-rotation arms.

“I’ve been a pitcher my whole life. I was pitcher of the year my freshman year,” Amoroso said. “We have a lot of pitchers, but I feel like I can be in that No. 1 or No. 2 spot. I’m always trying to prove whatever I can.”

Amoroso is also showing that he is more than an arm, he can swing the bat, too, batting .353 on the year.

“He’s batting in the middle of the lineup. He’s doing a good job of getting on base and hunting good pitches,” Rogers said.

Amoroso’s no-no is the fifth no-hitter at Woodside since 2013. Jamie Krueger didn’t allow a hit in a 7-0 win Jefferson in 2013, while Timmy Goode is one of those rare pitchers to throw a no-hitter and lose, as he did in a 1-0 loss to Terra Nova in 2017. Harry Pelzman threw one in a 1-0 win over Hillsdale last year, and now Schwab and Amoroso have accomplished it in back-to-back games this season.

There is a common link between Pelzman, Schwab and Amoroso — catcher Jayce Enochs, who has been behind the plate in the last three Woodside no-hitters.

“I trust him a lot back there,” Amoroso said of Enochs. “I’ve been throwing to him for, like, four years now. … He knows what he’s doing.”

As for Rogers, he has some decisions to make as the start of PAL Ocean Division play looms next week.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Rogers said. “I have three pitchers (including Dylan Babcock) who have been throwing great in the rotation and another coming back (Pelzman, from injury),” Rogers said. “They’re all going to be in there. Right now, we’ll just go with the hot arms and see who is going to start.”