San Mateo American showcases pitching depth on Nor Cal 12s stage

Moreno’s comeback story reached maximum velocity Sunday, as the right-hander delivered a gem to lead American through the winners’ bracket of the Northern California baseball tournament with a 2-1 victory over Napa at Lions Town & Country Park.

“This was obviously the most he’s thrown in probably well over a year,” San Mateo American manager Jason Gordon said.

Moreno dazzled through five-plus innings, setting down 12 straight at one point, and taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning. The right-hander had his fastball cooking and his curveball spinning in totaling eight strikeouts against one hit and three walks, while finishing his day with 86 pitches.

“Just throw hard, stay consistent,” Moreno said of his approach. “The curveball is normally not always on, but it was on today. So, that was good.”

American has now opened Nor Cal play with two straight wins despite not having ace right-hander Jagger O’Brien available to pitch. O’Brien finished the Section 3 tournament Wednesday with a complete-game victory, maxing out his pitch count to incur a mandatory four days’ rest as per Little League rules.

Right-hander Matthew Ward opened the Nor Cal tourney Saturday with seven strikeouts through 3 1/3 solid innings to earn the win in American’s 6-0 victory over Quito Little League of Saratoga. Moreno went deep in the game with a two-run blast, his second straight game with a home run. He also connected for a solo shot in Wednesday’s Section 3 finale.

O’Brien will be available to pitch Tuesday in the winners’ bracket semifinal against Land Park Pacific Little League of Sacramento. Moreno won’t be available to pitch again until Friday, in the event of the tentative if-necessary game being played in the championship round. He said his arm, and his ankle, were feeling fine after Sunday’s epic outing.

“Great,” Moreno said. “It was really fun.”

Moreno got some serious help from his teammates in the late innings, though. Not only did right-hander Connor Workman enter in relief with one on and no outs in the sixth, and navigate three hits to record the save. American’s defense was on point as good, old fashioned fundamentals proved to save the day.

“We saw every possible defensive scenario pretty much in that last inning, and they did a great job,” Jason Gordon said.

Second baseman Cody Gordon was involved in two clutch plays, but he merely had the best seat in the house for the defensive play that directly preserved the lead.

With a runner at second and one out and American clinging to a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth, Napa’s Easton Hardy lined a single to center. Center fielder Carter Weyer came up throwing, hitting the cutoff man, Workman, in an effort to keep the back runner at first base. But the lead runner rounded third and overcommitted toward home before stopping in his tracks, allowing Workman to run at him. As the runner restarted toward home, Workman threw a strike to O’Brien, the catcher, to get the pivotal out.

“After I released the ball, when Connor looked at him, he was right in the middle,” Weyer said. “He was just right there. So, it was pretty easy. He just threw it to Jagger and he was out.”

“It just gave us more confidence,” Cody Gordon said. “I mean, you hold the tying run, but it’s also just an out. It’s like two birds one stone. We got two things we just absolutely needed there.”

American jumped ahead early. Workman led off the game with a long double to left-center. After Workman moved to third on a Hudson Wong sacrifice bunt, he scored on a wild pitch. In the second, Moreno led off the inning with a single to left. Napa starting pitcher Landon Houle battled back to get the next two outs, but American’s William Meza picked up with team by scorching a double over the third-base bag to drive home courtesy runner Pono Rosenberg to make it 2-0.

Moreno said he battled some nerves through the first inning, and had to overcome a leadoff walk to Cordero Ochoa that cost him six pitches. He totaled 10 pitches getting the next two batters out. He’d go on to set down 12 straight, the 12th of which took him 10 pitches to notch a strikeout to end the fourth.

He worked into the final inning with the shutout intact, but got charged with a run after issuing a walk to to Andrew Keller to open the sixth.

“I wish Christopher was a little more efficient earlier in the game to finish that thing out,” Jason Gordon said. “They sure acted a little bit differently with their bats once he came out of the game. They woke up in a hurry. But, whatever; 80 pitches gets us through five-plus innings. You can’t really ask for more than that.”

Moreno battled through a dicey fifth inning, though. Napa’s Brayden Bushby led off with a walk to bring No. 3 hitter Will Whittman to the plate. Moreno hung a curveball to Whittman, and the big right-hander nearly made him pay with a towering fly ball that was caught two steps in front of the left-field fence.

“I hung the curveball and it was right down the middle,” Moreno said. “So, I thought it was out.”

Cleanup hitter Jake Tarap followed with a line-shot double up the left-center gap, putting runners at second and third. Then Moreno buckled down, and got some help on a heads-up play by Cody Gordon, as the second baseman backtracked into shallow right field to catch a towering popup, then immediately fired a throw home to keep the runner at third base from tagging up.

Cody Gordon celebrated with a show of emotion that nearly had him jumping out of his shoes.

“When good things happen, you’ve got to be excited,” Cody Gordon said. “You have 12 kids that I’ve known for a while now. They all have my back.”

The second baseman showed even more defensive intuition in the sixth.

Workman entered with a runner on first, and was greeted by a Brix Leach single to put runners at the corners. Jameson McWilliams followed with a grounder to Hudson Wong at short that had double play written all over it, but the sharp two-hopper kicked off Wong’s chest and bounded away from him on a play that could have spelled disaster. While Keller scored on the play, American got a stroke of luck when the ball rolled right to Cody Gordon. The second baseman turned that luck into a skillful out as, instead of trying to get the lead runner who was already sliding into second, he opted to take the out at first.

“The ball went up the middle, I’m thinking: ‘OK, get to second, a double-play opportunity,’” Cody Gordon said. “The ball goes over the bag, Hudson, it bounces off his chest, if comes right to my bare hand, I pick it up, fire to first, and just get the out. It’s just like one out at a time at that point.”

After Weyer started the relay play for the second out of the inning, Napa kept the pressure on with a single from Houle to put runners at first and second. But Workman bounced back to induce a popup to Ward at first base to end it.

American totaled four hits in the game, capped by a third-inning single by Ryan Dorossett. Bushby entered in relief in the fourth and fired three scoreless innings, getting an assist in the sixth when the right fielder Keller made a brilliant diving catch with a runner at second, crashing hard on a sinking liner off the bat of Weyer.

“I thought it was going to drop,” Weyer said. “Because I didn’t really hit it that hard, I thought it was going to drop. But the guy in right field was pretty fast and he made a pretty great play.”

Tuesday’s semifinal showdown with Land Park Pacific is scheduled for a 7 p.m.