Capuchino picks up key win

This time, it was Capuchino that came out on top. Behind a strong performance from starting pitcher Declan Mendel, the Mustangs got just enough offense and then held their breath during a seventh-inning Hillsdale rally as they pulled out a 2-1 win.

“I keep hoping I’ll wake up one morning, come to the yard and get a win by more than a run,” said Capuchino manager Matt Wilson. “But a win’s a win. I’ll take it.

As has become a nearly every day occurrence during the 2024 high school baseball season, this game was, once again, a pitcher’s duel. Both Mendel and his Hillsdale counterpart, Jake Belloni, were difficult to square up and both kept their teams in the game. Capuchino (4-5 PAL Bay, 15-7 overall) gave Mendel an early cushion, scoring a run three batters into the Mustangs’ first at-bat. They added what turned out to be the game-winner in the bottom of the fifth.

Between those runs, Capuchino didn’t get a lot of Belloni, who pitched a complete game while scattering five hits and giving up two earned runs.

“[Belloni] did a great job,” Wilson said. “He just changed locations a lot and was keeping us off (balance).”

But Belloni was the hard-luck loser because Mendel was just a little bit better. The junior took the loss in that CCS title game last year, but he held Hillsdale (3-6, 6-10-1) hitless for 4 1/3 innings Wednesday.

But the Knights broke up the no-hit bid when freshman catcher Parker Jessup flared a single to left, followed by Santino Sylvester legging out a bunt single.

“He’s been amazing,” Wilson said of Mendel. “His last three starts, he’s been lights out.”

If he had been a little finer, a complete game was in the cards for Mendel, as well. But he struggled a bit early on, which drove up his pitch count. He ended up working six innings, giving up just two hits, striking out six and walking three, on 97 pitches.

“At first, his secondary pitches weren’t working at all,” Wilson said. “But he doesn’t shy away from a challenge. There’s a reason he pitched in the CCS championship game as a sophomore.

“I didn’t want to take him out (after six innings), but I don’t like to get up there with pitches.”

The Knights must have breathed a sigh of relief to finally see someone other than Mendel take the mound and they nearly tied the game and had a chance to go ahead in the top of the seventh.

Facing Capuchino reliever Will Stevens, who walked a tightrope in earning the save, Hillsdale put together its only rally of the game. Josh Mayol led off the top of the seventh by drawing a walk and moved to second on a Joseph Hoskins slow roller toward third base, with the only play Anakin Manuel could make was at first for the out.

Mayol was then balked to third before a strikeout for the second out of the inning. The brought up pinch-hitter Thomas Schultz in the No. 9 spot, who, with two strikes, fouled off three pitches before eventually drawing a walk to put runners on the corners.

Knights’ leadoff hitter Ethan Belloni came up and on an 0-2 pitch, cued a pitch to the left of Capuchino second baseman Yulio Ceron. While the ball was not hit hard, it was perfectly placed deep in the hole at second and into shallow left field. Ceron managed to glove it, but Ethan Belloni was safe and Mayol scored to cut the Mustangs’ lead in half.

Ethan Ganoza followed with a walk to load bases and bring up designated hitter and No. 3 hitter Mason Kang. He eventually worked the count full and on the payoff pitch, Stevens enticed Kang to hit a lazy fly ball to left field that Joe Tressitte squeezed for the final out and the 2-1 Mustangs’ win.

Capuchino wasted no time getting to Jake Belloni before he could find his rhythm. Nate Balch led off the bottom of the first with a single to left. Following a strikeout, Ryan Burton doubled home Balch for a quick 1-0 Mustangs’ lead.

But Jake Belloni settled in quite nicely after that. He gave up a single to Ceron in the second, but didn’t allow a hit in the third or fourth inning.

But Capuchino touched him again in the fifth. Ceron cracked a one-out double down the right-field line and with two outs, Cameron Chin took a pitch off the helmet to put runners on first and second.

That brought Balch to the plate, who drilled an RBI double to the left-center field gap to drive in Ceron and put the Mustangs up 2-0.

“It’s never going to be easy,” Wilson said. “It feels like the 2010 San Francisco Giants — torture.”