Belmont-Redwood Shores rides arms and defense to District 52 12s semis

Ateya and Shinseki worked three innings apiece — in the second shutout of the tournament after Hillsborough topped Palo Alto 7-0 last Sunday — and the two hurlers got a big assist from shortstop Jack Lang, who turned in several key plays to keep the shutout intact.

“It was huge,” Belmont-Redwood Shores manager Ernie Chan said. “In our previous two games, those games were definitely won with the offense taking the lead, whereas [Thursday] was just a tightly pitched game and really timely defense.”

The BRS bats were indeed potent through the first two games of the tournament, with a 12-5 win over Foster City in last Saturday’s opener followed by a 15-5 triumph over Menlo-Atherton.

Heading into the bottom of the second inning Thursday evening, however, BRS held a 2-0 lead when Pacifica National set the table for a potentially big inning of its own. The first two Pacifica batters singled. But Ateya then went to work inducing groundballs.

BRS got the first out with a sharp grounder to Lang at short, who threw to Jeremy Yam at third base to cut down the lead runner. Then BRS got out of the inning unscathed on a grounder to the left side of second base allowing Lang to range left to gather it, step on second and throw to first for an inning-ending double play.

“Just fired up,” Chan said of his team’s reaction to getting back into the dugout. “We know Pacifica National, they’re tough. They were 2-0 coming in and we knew they were going to scrap and claw all the way. And when you’re further along in the tournament, every out is precious and every base runner is stressful … and just being able to get a double play that’s timely, it just fires everybody up and brings momentum back in the dugout.”

Ateya worked three innings, throwing just 45 pitches to earn the win. Shinseki was greeted in the fourth with a leadoff single, but it was the only hit he’d allow over three innings to record the save, while also limiting his pitch count to under 45. This makes both Ateya and Shinseki available to pitch Sunday against Hillsborough.

“Everyone is available for Sunday,” Chan said. “So, that’s good.”

Ateya pitched with a lead from the outset as BRS rallied for two runs in the top of the first.

Lucas Chan set the table with a leadoff single to right. Then with one out, Shenseki got hit by a pitch. With slugger Alex Jordan at the plate, Chan and Shenseki advanced on a wild pitch, setting the stage for Jordan’s two-run single to right to give BRS a 2-0 lead.

The damage could have been worse had it not been for an exceptional defensive play by Pacifica first baseman Jacob Cai, who made a leaping nab on a line-drive toward the line to rob Lang of a hit for the first out of the inning.

In the third inning, BRS catcher Cooper Tsang got in on the defensive action. Pacifica put the potential tying runs on base with runners at first and third. Many times in such a situation, in the case of a steal of second base, defenses don’t throw through to keep the runner at third in check. BRS decided to gamble though, and Tsang delivered a dagger by throwing out the would-be base-stealer at second to end the inning.

“Any team probably has a number of different plays they have set up for first and third with that scenario,” Chan said. “We felt like we could probably get the guy out at second base if he went, and they did.”

In the fifth, BRS added two insurance runs courtesy of a two-out rally. Lucca Williams was the two-out spark with a single to center. After a walk to Nikolai Liu and a single by Lucas Chan loaded the bases, Lang came through with a marathon at-bat. After working the count full, Lang fouled off two pitches, and on the eighth pitch of the AB socked a two-run single to center.

“We only have two (runs) up, then getting any more runs insurance wise is just so hugely important,” Ernie Chan said.

Shinseki closed it out in the sixth, recording the final assist of the game himself with a comebacker for the final out.

The winner of Sunday’s winners’ bracket semifinal between BRS and Hillsborough will advance to the championship round, slated for Tuesday at Middlefield Park at 5:30 p.m. An if-necessary game would be played 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.