Amoroso leads Woodside past San Mateo

Making his seventh start of the season, on the road at San Mateo, the junior had one of his best outings of the season — which is saying a lot, considering he has a no-hitter under his belt this year.

Amoroso went the distance, allowing just three hits. He then provided the game’s only run with an RBI single in the top of the seventh inning as the the Ocean Division-leading Wildcats escaped with a 1-0 victory.

“I felt great out of the gate,” said Amoroso, who improved to 6-0 on the season while lowering his ERA to 2.12. (My key) is just keeping the same mechanics and not let them pick up on my breaking ball.”

San Mateo (3-4 PAL Ocean, 10-8 overall) played well and had its chances, but the Bearcats didn’t play well enough. Not executing a number of little things cost them and Woodside (6-1, 13-2-1) didn’t miss on its last chance.

“We’re not doing the little things to win games,” said San Mateo manager Neal Goldstein. “In a 1-nothing game, those things are magnified.

“It’s a tough loss.”

Making it even tougher to swallow was the fact that the Bearcats couldn’t give starting pitcher Christian Louie much offensive support, as he finished with a no-decision. Louie was matching Amaroso pitch for pitch, but he struggled to get out of innings, which drove his pitch count up.

In the first and second innings, Louie gave up two-out walks which added two more batters and eight more pitches to his ledger.

But then two-out errors in the third and fourth innings added four more batters and 19 extra pitches. Totaled up that’s 27 extra pitches, which conceivably could be two innings worth of pitches. He came out after the fifth inning and 97 pitches, allowing just one hit.

“He was good when he was in the strike zone,” Woodside manager Dan Rogers said of Louie’s outing. “We had a hard time hitting him hard.”

Added Goldstein: “Five shutout innings, you can’t ask for anything more. But you’re going to win zero games if you don’t score a run.”

Woodside had runners in scoring position in the first three innings, including loading the bases in the fourth, but Louie got out the jam each time. And after giving up a hit to Amoroso leading off the game, Louie didn’t allow another hit until Ryan Dodge’s two-out single in the fifth.

San Mateo had just as much trouble getting much going against Amoroso. The Bearcats’ best opportunity came in the second inning, when they had runners on second and third with one out, but came up empty.

San Mateo didn’t have another real scoring chance until leadoff hitter Julian Delphin ripped a double to the gap in left-center field on the hardest hit ball of the game to lead off the bottom of the sixth.

But with Hayato Nishiyama at the plate, Delphin was caught too far off the bag and was picked off by Woodside catcher Jayce Enochs.

Nishiyama would end up walking and taking second on a wild pitch, but he was stranded there.

In the top of the seventh, the Wildcats finally scratched out a run and it was Amoroso who supplied the clutch hit. Vincent Vazquez led off the inning with a popup between the mound and third base. But San Mateo reliever Jesus Olivas and third baseman Travis Okimura nearly collided, with the ball landing and Vazquez safe with an infield hit. Vasquez then stole second.

With one out, Amoroso came to the plate and, on a 1-0 pitch, pulled a shot down the right-field line for an RBI single.

“[Amoroso] is a great competitor. He has a patient eye at the plate. … I love how he competes at the plate and how he competes on the mound,” Roger said. “But you can’t just expect your pitcher to do that every game.”

Both Rogers and Amoroso know that as the the Ocean Division leader, the Wildcats will have a target on their back the rest of the regular season. Amoroso expects more of these types of games, but wished he had a little more leeway with which to play.

“I expect [games] to be like this, but this was too close for comfort,” Amoroso said.

Rogers, meanwhile, is telling his team that the next game is the most important of the season.

“We’ve had a good start (to league play),” Rogers said. “But it’s how you finish that counts.”