San Mateo American 12s win 10th straight elimination game

Trailing 4-1 in the third inning, American rallied for four runs to take the lead. Alex Yoshino stepped to the plate with a 4-3 deficit, and runners on second and third, and knocked a two-run single to left field to score Ewan Osborne and DJ Ruiz to take the lead.

“I got an outside pitch and I just tried to have a little contact swing and put it into left-center,” Yoshino said.

It marks the second straight day American has come from behind, after rallying for a 14-run fourth inning in Monday’s 17-5 win over Sunrise/Delta.

“It was kind of like the mood [Monday],” Yoshino said. ‘We knew that we could come back, and we just hadn’t done it yet. Once we started getting our hits in, we started getting excited and stuff.”

American used three pitchers to navigate Tuesday’s win, with starter Nick Loew working three innings; Landon King bridging 2 2/3 innings on 35 pitches; and Jake Mrowka getting the final out of the contest.

American’s pitchers totaled 11 strikeouts, with King getting seven of the eight outs her recorded via the punch-out.

“[King] threw his first pitch and (coach) Tony Silvestri and I said: ‘They’re not touching him,’” San Mateo American manager Paul Witten said.

King will be available to pitch again Thursday in the championship round.

But make no mistake, the secret of the American 12s’ success is their offense.

“The recipe for us if we get to Friday is just to continue to hit,” Witten said.

Yoshino’s go-ahead single out of the No. 8 spot might have seemed like an unlikely spot in the order to hit in the fourth inning. American’s leadoff man, Max Yeh, led off the inning, and made an out no less. Then came the hit parade.

“We nickel and dimed them,” Witten said. “He hit the ball hard, we put the ball in play and hit it hard.”

American has now won 10 straight elimination games, including seven straight in the District 52 tournament after falling in the opening game of the All-Stars summer season. They advanced to the championship round of the Section 3 tournament through the winners’ bracket, but then dropped the first championship game to Danville before bouncing back in the if-necessary game to win the section banner.

American has now knocked out Sunrise/Delta and Los Gatos on consecutive days through the Nor-Cals elimination bracket.

“I’m actually really impressed and inspired by their resilience because they’re not getting tired like I had initially worried,” Witten said. “They really do love playing together and are having a lot of fun doing it.”