Hillsborough stays alive in District 52 All-Star 11s tournament

Hillsborough fell behind 2-0 after half an inning, but rallied for a 3-2 lead in the second before pitching and defense took over, and Hillsborough hung on for the victory.

“I was really impressed with Palo Alto,” said Hillsborough manager John Gherini. “I thought they played a great game.”

Palo Alto manager Susan Peterson was equally impressed with Hillsborough.

“It was a close one,” Peterson said. “We knew they won the (Minors) tournament last year.”

All the scoring came in the first two innings. Palo Alto got a leadoff hit from Max Peterson, but he was erased when Hillsborough starting pitcher Momo Lubarsky induced a grounder to second baseman Mason Dow, who flipped to shortstop Mico DeMartini, who stepped on the bag and threw on to first baseman Jack Veach for the double play.

But Lubarsky suddenly lost command of the strike zone. Max Cheng followed with a single for Palo Alto, Jake Choi walked and Eric Tian was plunked in the back to load the bases.

Isaiah Vanderlip and Alexi Cherusel followed with back-to-back RBI walks before Lubarsky got a groundout to get out of the inning after 35 pitches.

She lasted only three more batters into the second inning before Gherini went to his deep bullpen.

“I think she was a bit rusty,” Gherini said, adding Lubarsky was away at a USA Flag Football development camp last week.

“She missed her bullpen.”

Luckily for Hillsborough, it’s loaded with arms as three relievers — Justin Ng, Veach and DeMartini — combined to shut down Palo Alto over the final 4 2/3 innings, scattering six hits.

Ng was up first, taking over with runners on first and second and one out in the top of the second inning. He proceeded to strike out the next two batters and get out of the jam.

“My nickname for him is ‘The Cooler,’” Gherini said. “Because he comes in and cools off the other team’s bats.”

Ng worked into the fourth inning, but not before DeMartini made a dazzling play at short. He went into the hole to his right and made a back-handed grab of a hot shot off the bat of Palo Alto’s Arthur Anderson.

DeMartini popped to his feet and unleashed a throw to first that was just late, despite a tremendous stretch by Veach.

With one on and one out in the fourth, Veach was the next man up on the mound. Like Ng, Veach struck out the next two batters to strand Palo Alto’s Tian, who had led off the inning with a double and moved to third on wild pitch.

Veach would strike out the first four batters he faced before an Eli Gruin bad-hop single over Caroline Gherini’s mitt at first base broke up the streak with two outs in the top of the fifth. But he locked right back in struck out the next batter to end the inning.

Veach came back out to start the sixth and got help from DeMartini, who made his second web gem play of the game when he dove to his right to snag a Max Peterson line drive to lead off the inning.

But Anderson followed with a single to center to end Veach’s outing. DeMartini moved to the mound and things nearly fell apart. He induced a grounder from the first Palo Alto batter he faced, only to see the ball booted by his replacement at short. the next batter followed with a grounder to shortstop and again, the play was not made and suddenly Palo Alto had the bases loaded with one out.

But DeMartini calmly struck out the final two batters to preserve the 3-2 victory.

“DeMartini is a great player,” Coach Gherini said. “I would pitch him more if he wasn’t such a good shortstop.”

While that quartet of Hillsborough pitchers kept Palo Alto in check, Paly needed only one guy on the bump, Lucas Tsui, who went the distance. He gave up three runs on four hits in the first two innings, but limited Hillsborough to just four hits over the next four innings, throwing just 71 pitches and gave his team a chance to win.

“He was amazing. You couldn’t ask for anything more,” Coach Peterson said of Tsui’s performance. “He’s our most consistent pitcher throwing strikes.”

But Hillsborough took advantage before Tsui could fully settle in. Caroline Gherini led off the bottom of the first with a walk on a full count and that was followed by a Veach bunt single.

After a popout, Dylan Viera came to the plate as the cleanup hitter. On a 1-1 pitch, he laced a single to left, with Gherini hustling around third and scoring just ahead of the throw home to cut the Palo Alto lead to 2-1.

“We call Dylan, ‘Thunder,’” Coach Gherini said. “He’s really exploded this year. It doesn’t seem like the moment is too big for him.”

Viera later added a booming single to center, just missing a home run, but he was thrown out at second on a bang-bang play.

Veach took third on Viera’ first-inning, RBI single and scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Viera was stranded at third after Tsui got a popout and a groundout to end the inning with game tied at 2-all.

Hillsborough took the lead for good in the bottom of the second when Dow led off with a single to right and took second when the ball bounced off the right fielder’s glove. Dow went to third on a Bryant Lien sacrifice bunt and scored on a Cole St. Clair infield hit for a 3-2 lead.

After that, it was a pitching duel.

And despite using four pitchers, Coach Gherini said he has more than enough arms locked and loaded for the rest of the tournament, which could be seven more games, beginning tonight at 5:30 p.m. against Redwood City, if Hillsborough goes on to win the title.

“This District 52 is one of the most competitive in Northern California. There are a number of teams who can win this,” Coach Gherini said. “But we’re built for the [elimination] bracket. We have our top two pitchers ready to go and we have seven kids who can throw strikes.

“We have a full slate (of pitching).”