San Mateo National tops American to reach District 52 All-Stars 10s finals

“He made some fantastic plays defensively today,” San Mateo National coach Gary Falzon said. “Plays that are not easy that he made look easy. That’s a testament to the type of athlete he is. He’s a great all-around player and he kept us in the game with those plays, especially that last inning.”

Bottani turned in some gems, including a backhanded nab in the sixth on a smash off the bat of American’s J.T. Pettigrew — who represented the tying run — for a seemingly routine throw across the diamond for the second out. But it was a play Bottari didn’t make in the second inning that inspired his outstanding defensive display the rest of the way.

“I was kind of frustrated that I missed that play, [but] I just got the next one and kept trying my best to get the next ground ball,” Bottani said.

The frustrating second-inning play was a slow grounder to short off the bat of American cleanup hitter Owen Bittle. Under the immense pressure of the District 52 playoff stage, Bottani took his time to gather the grounder, but stayed back on the ball a tick too long, allowing Bittle to leg it out for an infield single.

“I think I could have (made the play), I just didn’t charge it enough,” Bottani said. “I should have ran up and got that.”

Bittle eventually came around to score. A walk to Alexander Bayer, a fielder’s choice off the bat of Jacob Armstrong advancing Bittle to third, and a passed ball allowing him to motor home, give American an early 1-0 lead.

But as it turned out, Bittle’s infield knock was one of just four hits allowed by National starting pitcher Caleb Fuata. The left-hander was nails through five-plus innings, striking out five against just one walk, while not allowing a ball out of the infield until the fourth inning. In fact, all the outs through the first three innings were either strikeouts or grounders to shortstop.

Fuata has struck out 23 batters through three pitching appearances in the tournament.

“Caleb pitched really well,” Bottani said. “He was striking people out. If they made contact, it wasn’t really far, it was just weak ground balls. He was pitching really good.”

American right-hander Zach Marinec turned in a sturdy effort of his own, recording a complete game in his first starting assignment of the tourney. Marinec allowed four runs, all unearned, on three hits, two walks and a hit batsman while striking out four. The right-hander had just one inning go sideways on him, in the bottom of the third, when National scored all its runs.

“He pitched phenomenal,” San Mateo American manager Jon Wells said. “He’s one of the leaders on the team, and he manages things behind the plate (as the team’s catcher) for us and has for this entire run. Today we let him have the ball because he’s a very good pitcher as well. But we knew that … he’d be able to throw strikes and stay in the zone.”

The game’s biggest swing came from the bat of Armstrong, who stepped to the plate in the third with two outs, the bags full of National baserunners and cleared the bases with a smash to left field. Dominic Galea led off the inning by reaching on an infield error. Then with two outs, and National turning over the batting order, Bottani walked and Fuata got hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Armstrong followed with a clutch line drive that dropped in front of the charging left fielder, then skimmed under his glove and all the way to the outfield wall, clearing the bases to give National a 3-1 lead.

“It was one of those balls that, had he taken one more step forward, he might have caught it waist-high,” Wells said, “but wanted to try to keep it in front. And we’ve gotten some bad hops out in that outfield out there, and this happened to be one that just sort of skipped out instead of bouncing up into the mitt.”

Then came the Bottani show. National’s shortstop was already in a good groove, having recorded all three outs with infield assists on routine grounders in the top of the third. After American finally got a ball out of the infield with a fourth-inning single by Mazin Khoury, then again in the fifth with a one-out triple by Armstrong, Bottani turned in his most impressive defensive plays.

Armstrong did score in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Bobby Zapala to make it 4-2, but the run-scoring play did more for the momentum of National as Bottani speared a one-hop seed to his backhand, and had the presence of mind, the calm of composure, and the rocket arm to deliver the ball across the diamond to first base for the critical second out of the inning.

It was one of several hard-hit balls Bottani turned into outs.

“The boys continue to hit the ball hard,” Wells said. “And, again, it’s baseball; sometimes they find the holes, sometimes they don’t. Some of those are hard-hit balls that are going right to people at this point. You keep sticking with it, and you keep hitting the ball hard, and it’s going to find the holes at some time.”

Bottani then stifled American’s last scoring opportunity in the sixth. American’s Noah Jones drew a leadoff walk to knock Fuata out of the game — as the workhorse reached the maximum pitch count with 77 pitches — with William Falzon entering in relief.

The right-handed closer recorded the first out with a short popup to the middle of the infield that saw Bottani initially break back, but course correct and sprint in to catch on the fly. Then Pettigrew’s rocket toward the hole between short and third saw Bottani take away a hit that would have put the tying run on base.

“JT is an incredible hitter, and as soon as he hit it, the sound of the bat, I thought that was by [Bottani],” Wells said. “But again, one step over, he was able to make that quick play. That was a great play by the shortstop. But, yeah, I did think that was getting through.”

William Falzon then wrapped up the save with a soft liner to Armstrong at second, keeping National unbeaten through four games in the tournament. The win marks the team’s first comeback victory.

San Mateo National now advances to Monday’s championship round to face Hillsborough, needing be defeated twice to be denied the title in the double-elimination tourney. First pitch for at Fairway Park is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. An if-needed game is tentatively slated for Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Hillsborough knocked out San Mateo American with a 10-5 win in the elimination bracket.