Capuchino Mustangs baseball manager Matt Wilson mans the first-base dugout at Oracle Park in his team’s 1-0 win April 12 over Burlingame. Wilson hasn’t missed a game since undergoing treatment for throat cancer in the offseason.
Baseball manager Matt Wilson’s young squad got off to a rough start Friday with a 10-8 loss to the King’s Academy. The Mustangs are champing at the bit for their win in Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play, and nearly staged a remarkable comeback against the first-place Knights, rallying for five runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie it 8-all. TKA, though, seized on a hit batsman, two walks and a Cap error in the top of the seventh to stage a game-winning rally.
“It think those things combined helped us get back into it,” Wilson said. “I had a pretty good feeling we were going to pull that one off, but a couple errors bit us.”
The loss marks a two-game series sweep for the Knights, dropping Cap to 0-3 in Bay Division play.
“Starting 0-3 isn’t ideal,” Wilson said. “We’re definitely a young team and we had some success in preseason, and we just can’t make the same mistakes we made in preseason in the Bay Division. The room for error is minimal.”
Then, with Cap originally scheduled to return to Oracle Park for the second straight year Saturday night, the squall line that hammered the Bay Area with rain over the weekend prompted a three-week postponement for the big date.
Cap’s matchup with Burlingame at the home field of the San Francisco Giants is now slated for Friday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m. Wilson said the postponement could be a blessing in disguise after the Mustangs totaled 11 walks and four errors in the series finale against TKA.
“Those are things we’ve got to clean up and me and the coaching staff, we’ve been talking about it all weekend,” Wilson said. “It might be a blessing in disguise because it gives us some time to get a little more work in.”
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This will mark the second straight year Cap and Burlingame will meet at Oracle Park. Last season, Cap starting pitcher Declan Mendel fired a three-hit shutout, maxing out his 110 pitch limit with his final pitch of the night, a game-ending third strike to punctuate the gem under the spotlight of the major league diamond.
“He looked amazing,” Wilson said. “He just took that game and said I’m running with it. There was no way he was coming out of that game.”
Two other PAL matchups slated for Oracle Park have been rescheduled. Sequoia will take on Half Moon Bay Friday, May 1, at 5 p.m. Hillsdale will take on Carlmont on Saturday.
Capuchino’s game was specifically slated for the Friday nightcap, as the school’s prom is scheduled for Saturday, May 2.
The Mustangs may be familiar with Oracle Park, but it will be the first time most of them will set foot on the diamond in a game. Last season, Cap started eight seniors against Burlingame.
“It’s for the kids and it’s a cool experience for them,” Wilson said. “It’s something they’ll never forget. So, it’s worth it ... and, honestly, I feel honored that they asked us to do it again.”
Each team playing in the weekend series is required to sell 1,000 tickets, which guarantees entrance to not only the high school game, but one of a selection of San Francisco Giants games.
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