Hillsborough captures District 52 Little League Minors Superbowl title

Reliever Beckett Barnes closed out the championship victory, with Baum earning the win while allowing one run on four hits and striking out seven.

“I don’t really like starting the games,” Baum said. “It’s not my favorite since it has lots of pressure. But in big games I really like to pitch a lot.”

Baum hasn’t started many games this season. Having worked his way back from a broken pitching hand, he only returned to the mound six weeks ago. He threw just one extended start, but worked mostly in relief. Most recently, he closed out Monday’s Superbowl semifinals in relief, an 8-3 win over San Mateo American.

“We only went through three pitchers in the whole tournament, amazingly,” Hillsborough manager Brian Baum said, with a list of starting pitchers that included Nathan Chartier in Sunday’s 10-4 win over Ravenswood and Jeff Lin in Monday’s semifinals. “And a lot of our kids didn’t pitch a lot before, and they just worked at it, worked at their craft, and did great.”

San Mateo National was coming off a dramatic win in the semifinals, a 9-8 walk-off victory Monday over Alpine/West Menlo. National led the semifinal 6-0 early on, but found itself trailing 8-7 going into its final at-bat. But Luke Cruz set the table by reaching base to lead off the inning then promptly stealing with a bang-bang play at second base. Jason Wu followed with an RBI triple to tie it, and Alex Griggs won it with an RBI single.

“It was crazy,” Griggs said. “Everyone was like banging my head and stuff.”

Tuesday’s championship game was all about pitching and defense though. Jack Baum locked up with National starting pitcher Clayton Gabler for a scoreless game through the opening two innings.

Gabler worked 3 2/3 innings before giving way to reliever Nikko Orio.

“[Clayton Gabler] was great,” San Mateo National manager Dave Gabler said. “If you had told us we’d give up four runs in this game I’d be feeling pretty good about our chances. We’ve typically scored over 10 runs in almost every game we’ve played.”

Clayton Gabler’s night was a little rocky to start, as he allowed back-to-back singles to Lucas Reisenberg and Barnes to open the bottom of the first. But then National turned one of the wildest double plays you’ll ever see.

With runners at the corners, Hillsborough attempted a double steal, with the runner at first base attempting to draw a throw. National catcher Leo Barsetti put a trick play in motion, though, opting not to throw through to second base, but making a quick throw to shortstop Jordan Perez, who was angling toward the plate to throw back to Barsetti when the lead runner broke home.

Perez’s throw was right on the money for Barsetti to apply the out tag.

“It was pretty good,” Barsetti said. “It was right to my glove that was near the plate ... and he got out. And I didn’t look for a sec, so the (other) runner thought: ‘Oh, he’s not looking, I should run to third.’”

Barsetti alertly threw to the third baseman Orio to complete the thrilling double play.

Hillsborough broke through in the third though with a big swing of the bat from Lin. Ashton Coen drew a leadoff walk. Then Lin bashed an RBI triple to the wall in left. Lin later scored on a come-backer off the bat of Evereth Roberts, with Lin initially freezing on the one-hopper to the pitcher, but quickly dashing home after the throw to first to give Hillsborough a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth, Hillsborough added to its lead. Barnes led off with an infield single and cleanup hitter Kolby DeClark drew a one-out walk. Then Chartier smoked an RBI single to left field, and Jack Baum followed with an RBI grounder to improve the lead to 4-0.

“Nathan has been super consistent at the plate, crushing balls,” Brian Baum said. “Very consistent hitting every game. He also hit during the season. He wasn’t on my team but every time we’d face him he was like 3 for 3, or 4 for 4. ... I couldn’t wait to have him on our team and here he is.”

National made some noise in the sixth to break up the shutout. Caden Jensen drew a leadoff walk to chase Jack Baum. Then, facing the Hillsborough bullpen, Clayton Gabler reached on an infield throwing error to put runners at first and second. After a wild pitch advanced the runners, Jose Hernandez Jr. drove in National’s first run with an RBI groundout to third. Luke Cruz then drove home Clayton Gabler with an RBI groundout.

Then with two outs, Wu hit a liner right at Hillsborough shortstop Owen Seybold to end it. Other than Seybold recording a putout on a caught stealing to end the first inning, the shortstop hadn’t touched the ball all night.

“That was the first time it was hit to shortstop the whole game,” Seybold said. “So, I wasn’t really expecting it.”

Seybold earned the right to nab the final out with some intuitive fielding. Wu, a left-handed batter, fouled off the previous pitch, but Seybold noticed the natural pull hitter was a little late on Barnes’ fastball.

“So, I kind of shifted over one or two steps to the right from I was normally positioned, and he hit it right at me,” Seybold said.

Hillsborough converged on the shortstop position to celebrate the tournament championship in style.

“It’s a good feeling knowing that you closed the game out,” Seybold said. “It’s kind of fun.”

Hillsborough’s championship roster also included: Riordan Benson and Gus Machado.

The Superbowl tournaments feature rosters composed of players who were considered for the District 52 Little League All-Stars tournaments. Once a player participates in Superbowl play, he is considered ineligible for All-Stars play. The Minors Superbowl consists of 10-11-year-old players. The Majors Superbowl — concluding Wednesday at the Belmont Sports Complex at 5:30 p.m., with Belmont-Redwood Shores taking on Foster City — consists of players 12 and under.