San Mateo baseball sophomore Wilson Morales throws no-hitter

It marks the first complete game of Morales’ varsity career. With the win he improves to 4-0 with a 1.31 ERA.

“His best game I’ve ever seen him pitch, and he’s only a sophomore,” Bearcats manager Neal Goldstein said. “So, good looking ahead.”

Design Tech (10-6-1) has been something of a no-hitter factory in the small-school Private School Athletic League in recent years. The Dragons have thrown multiple no-hitters in each of the last four seasons, including three in a row earlier this year.

The Bearcats bit back Saturday, as Morales allowed just one ball out of the infield. He totaled nine strikeouts and nine groundouts, including a tailor-made 4-6-3 twin killing in the seventh after a leadoff walk to Aidan Tom. He also issued a one-out walk to freshman Aaron Zetter in the sixth, Design Tech’s first baserunner of the day.

Morales finished with an efficient 92 pitches, but was originally slated to throw far less than that. Goldstein initially had pitching staff scheduled for a staff outing. The plan was to bring in junior right-hander Hudson Brandt scheduled to start the fifth inning in relief. This put Goldstein in a tricky situation during the game, as he had to approach Brandt to readjust the game plan without breaking the unwritten rule of mentioning the no-hitter in progress.

“‘I have a little situation,’” Goldstein said to Brandt. “‘I have to stick with Wilson and see what happens.’”

Goldstein said Brandt was wise to the situation.

“He knew what was going on,” Goldstein said. “They all knew. After the fourth inning, they all knew what was transpiring.”

At the plate, Morales added an RBI single amid a three-run fifth. San Mateo scored once in the second with an RBI single from senior Kai La Grille, and sophomore Apollo Lee made it 2-0 with an RBI single in the fourth. After Morales made it 3-0 in the fifth, the sophomore scored on a wild pitch and junior Julio Calderon singled home Jesus Olivas. Senior shortstop Tyce Copus notched an RBI single in the sixth to cap the day’s scoring.

Copus capped the no-no with a rangy play over the middle for the game’s final out, then Design Tech junior Branden Hom sent a high chopper over the middle.

“When it was hit, I was like: ‘Oh no, this could be a soft infield single,’ because it was not an easy play,” Goldstein said. “We were thinking he could beat this out.”

But Copus turned the tricky hopper into a fairly routine play, getting to it on the fringe of the grass and firing across the diamond for the game’s final out.

The no-hitter is San Mateo’s first since March 7, 2023, when current senior Christian Louie, then a freshman, and Victor Angulo and Ashley Stewart combined to achieve the feat in a regulation 17-0 win over Mission-SF.