Aragon baseball out-duels San Mateo

The Bearcats had already suffered a 2-0 loss to Burlingame and a 6-4 decision to Hillsdale when they took the short drive across town to the sunken diamond at Aragon.

And while San Mateo was in the game until the very end, the Bearcats couldn’t quite claw out the win, falling 3-2 to the Dons.

“We need to do the little things better,” Goldstein said. “We lost the game because of the little things.”

While the game was just a non-league match on the schedule, to Aragon manager Lenny Souza, there was much more riding on the game: bragging rights.

“This is one of the non-league games I care about the most,” Souza said. “All these kids went to elementary school together.”

When Aragon starting pitcher Ashton Moniz-Witten set the Bearcats down in order to start the game and his San Mateo counterpart Austin Lachapelle countered by striking out the side, it appeared the game was destined to be a pitcher’s duel.

And neither disappointed. Lachapelle went five strong innings, giving up two unearned runs while holding Aragon to just three hits.

The only thing working against Lachapelle was his pitch count. With inning pitch counts of 29, 22 and 31, he was near the high school pitching max by the time he got out of the fifth inning with a 2-2 tie.

“If his pitch count is lower, he could have gone seven (innings),” Goldstein said.

But he was that close to leaving with the lead, but the Dons scratched out an unearned run against him in his final inning of work to tie the game at 2.

Moniz-Witten was even more effective. He also gave up two runs on three hits — but Moniz-Witten went the distance, throwing just 78 pitches in the process. He struck out the side in the second on just 12 pitches, he threw just five in the third and seven in the fifth. All three hits allowed came during the Bearcats’ two-run fourth.

“He did a good job of changing speeds all game,” Souza said. “He mixes it up and hits his spots.”

Aragon (5-1 overall) got on the scoreboard first, scratching out an unearned run in the second inning. Pat Mori was hit by pitch to lead off the inning. Alan Tanielu followed with a bunt, that was thrown down the right-field line for a two-base error. Noah Frandsen following with a RBI single to left to plate Mori for a 1-0 lead.

Later in the inning, Tanielu was cut down at the plate trying to steal home.

San Mateo responded with two runs in the top of the fourth. Aaron Wong, Giancarlo Selvitella and Kevin Sanchez all singled to load the bases with no outs. Wong was balked home to tie the score at 1 and Ben Callicot gave the Bearcats the lead with a groundout to third base, with Selvitella scoring on the play.

Moniz-Witten got a strikeout and a flyout to right to keep the game at 2-1. San Mateo would not have a hit and only one base runner the rest of the way.

Aragon would tie the game at 2 with a run in the bottom of fifth. Colin Trizuto led off the inning with a walk and went to second on an errant pickoff attempt. Lachapelle got a flyout and strikeout and was close to getting out of the inning unscathed, but he hit Frandsen with a pitch to keep the inning alive and Ronin Lee reached on an error to load the bases. Schuyler Ng then drew a walk to drive in the tying run.

In the bottom of the sixth, Aragon scored the go-ahead run. Addison Yeh drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a wild pitch before Ryan Fernandez drew a walk and Trizuto reached on a bunt to load the bases. Mori followed by hitting a sacrifice fly to right, with Yeh barely beating the throw home for what turned out to be the game-winning run.

Despite the frustrations of losing three close games to Bay Division teams, San Mateo’s Goldstein believes the competition will help his team in the Ocean Division.

“We’ve proved we can play we Bay Division teams. We haven’t proved we can beat Bay Division teams,” Goldstein said. “But if we can be competitive against Bay teams, we’ll be OK in league.

“But you hate losing to one of the San Mateo schools.”