Aragon hurler Pat Mori mows down Half Moon Bay

Mori persevered like a champ, though, and turned in a career day, racking up 10 strikeouts in six innings of work as the Dons (13-3) downed Half Moon Bay 8-2. The 10 punch-outs in a new career-high for Mori and is the season best for any Aragon pitcher this season.

“He’s right around the zone all the time, he’s got good velocity, he can play,” Aragon manager Lenny Souza said. “He’s done a really good job.”

Mori has grown into a strikeout pitcher by necessity. The Aragon infield endured its share of growing pains in the early weeks of the season. Graduating all four starting infielders from the 2021 squad — including the cornerstone up-the-middle tandem of second baseman Ty Barrango and shortstop Jace Jeremiah — this year’s squad took some time to find its footing on infield grounders.

As a result, Mori felt the need to improve his strikeout efficiency. He has totaled 34 punch-outs in 37 innings this year, second on the team to junior hurler Ashton Moniz-Witten’s 35 strikeouts in 41 2/3 innings.

“At the beginning of the year, for sure, I felt like I had to throw a lot more strikeouts and be a lot more competitive with each of my pitches,” Mori said. “As the season’s gone on, I’ve just started to feel like I can reach back and throw it … and they’ll start making the plays behind me.”

Proving a dart-thrower with his four-seam fastball Thursday, though, Mori was hard to handle for the PAL Ocean Division leading Cougars.

HMB’s leadoff hitter Jared Mettam wasn’t impressed, opening the game with a single. But after Mettam moved to second base on a wild pitch, the senior got picked off at second base.

“He got picked off, and it was just on from there for Mori,” Souza said.

It sure was. Mori struck out the next two Cougars batters to retire the side. He’d go on to record at least one strikeout in each of his six innings of work, including the last two batters he faced. Junior right-hander Jared Walsh entered in the seventh and fanned two more, giving the Dons 12 strikeouts on the day.

Mori said he was perfectly fine with exiting the game after the sixth inning.

“It was a non-league game, and we were already up a ton,” Mori said. “So, there was really no need to throw the seventh.”

Aragon gave its senior starting pitcher early run support, scoring one in the first and four more in the second. The Dons capitalized on a HMB error, four walks and a hit batsman through those first two frames.

“A lot of it was given,” Souza said. “It wasn’t like we were banging the ball around the field.”

The Dons scored three more in the third with an RBI single from Colin Trizuto, followed by Mori getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive home Ryan Fernandez.

Mettam gave the Cougars their only runs of the day, connecting with a two-run homer to right field in the fifth.

With the win, Mori’s record improves to 5-2 on the year. Moniz-Witten is sitting right behind him at 4-1.

“[Mori] has been getting better and better as the year’s went on, which is exactly what we need,” Souza said. “Having a nice two-headed monster on our staff, he’s been a key for us.”