Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: Woodside’s Trent Amoroso

The week started with senior Trent Amoroso stepping on the mound of Woodside’s PAL Ocean Division opener. By week’s end, he was at shortstop to turn a game-ending double play in a Wildcats no-hitter.

It was what Amoroso did between those two feats that has earned him Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors. His Tuesday start? It turned into a complete-game victory in Woodside’s thrilling 2-1 win over Mills. His performance at the plate? A 7-for-13 clip including seven RBIs, eight runs scored, and the first two regulation varsity home runs in Saturday’s 22-0 victory over Washington-SF.

It doesn’t hurt Woodside’s senior pitching ace and leadoff hitter would have done more for the team if asked. When he walked off the mound after the top of the seventh in his eventual CG effort, the game was deadlocked in a 1-1 tie. The 5-11 senior had thrown a season-high, but still efficient, 87 pitches to that point.

“I talked to him and if we were going into the eighth inning, he was going to go back out there,” Wildcats manager Dan Rogers said.

The point became moot when, in the bottom of the seventh, Woodside sophomore Hunter Taylor raced home on a wild pitch to score the walk-off run. Until that moment, there was no flinch in Amoroso’s demeanor about climbing back up the mound for a potential eighth inning.

Amoroso is enjoying all the workload he can as a front-of-the-rotation starting pitcher at Woodside. Trucking along with a 2-1 record and a 2.42 ERA, while holding opposing hitters to a team-leading .197 batting average, he likely won’t be pitching at the next level. Committed to play NCAA Division III baseball at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, the left-handed hitter’s future is projected to be as an infielder.

“I’m willing to play whatever they need,” Amoroso said. “Yeah, I do want to pitch, but if they don’t put me there, I’m not upset at all.”

As they say in the scouting community, though — the bat plays. Entering the season as a .339 hitter, there was some concern about his contact rate after striking out 21 times in 80 at-bats as a junior. This year he’s seen a marked turnaround. Through 32 at-bats, he has fanned just five times to go with 11 walks, while ranking second in the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division with a cool .500 batting average through his first 10 games.

“One thing that I like about him, and that I noticed about him as a sophomore when we called him up ... is he’s a very patient hitter,” Rogers said. “He’s not afraid to take a walk and he doesn’t go swinging at pitches way out of the zone.”

Saturday’s performance saw him take his power game to another level. A career .558 slugger, Amoroso has consistently driven the ball throughout his three-year varsity career. Despite totaling 12 doubles last season, however, he had just one varsity home run to his credit, an inside-the-parker April 19, 2024, on University-SF’s home field, where his long line drive was helped by the artificial turf and no outfield fence.

After doubling in his first at-bat Saturday, Amoroso soon stepped to the plate to finally put one over the wall. However, as exciting as last year’s inside-the-park homer was, this one may have been even more dramatic.

With the baseball diamond at Woodside using a temporary rollout fence stretching from center field to the right-field line, Amoroso’s blast saw the Washington right fielder run right through it in an effort to track it down. As Amoroso rounded second, the outfielder had taken out portion of the fence, and the ball was nowhere to be found, leaving the umpire initially signaling a ground-rule double.

“I saw it go over and then the right fielder ran into the fence,” Amoroso said.

The umpires conferred and, after locating the ball, changed the call to a home run.

“He found it way beyond the outfield fence in a big puddle,” Rogers said.

So, just to get his money’s worth, Amoroso hit a second home run later in the game, a booming blast to right-center, to take the tour all the way around the bases without interruption.

“It was a no-doubter off the bat,” Rogers said.

Anchoring the infield at shortstop throughout the regulation seven innings, Amoroso was again looking to get his money’s worth. While his complete-game gem earlier in the week saw him yield just one unearned run on three hits and two walks, while striking out four, he didn’t get the classic celebration moment by finishing the game on the mound.

Amoroso, however, did get to make the final key throw to punctuate the no-hitter. While the right-hander does have one no-hitter in his varsity career — on March 11, 2024, he no-hit Mission-SF in an 8-0 win — he didn’t pitch in Saturday’s game. Junior starting pitcher Carter Ball worked five innings, allowing three walks while striking out nine; junior reliever Felix Kelly worked through three walks to throw a hitless sixth; and senior Anderson Comfort moved from second base to the mound to close it out in the seventh.

Comfort struck out the first batter before issuing a walk. Then it just so happened junior Diego Perez, who moved from left field to take over at second base, saved the no-hitter by fielding a sharp ground back up the middle.

“It was right up the middle and right behind second base,” Amoroso said. “Honestly, I don’t think any of our other infielders would have got to that ball. “

The speedy Perez did, though, ranging right to nab the grounder with a backhand and make a quick toss to Amoroso at the bag, who turned the twin-killing with a strike to first base to end it.

Woodside’s 22 runs in the game marks the best single-game total since 2021, when the Wildcats recorded a 23-1 victory over Harker. Because of the blowout, there was no need for Amoroso to pitch on three days’ rest. Had the Wildcats needed him, however, he was ready and willing to throw.

“Oh yeah,” Amoroso said. “I’m always willing to pitch.”