San Mateo overcomes dust-up at El Camino

San Mateo was leading 7-0 in the third inning when Natusch attempted to score from second base on a single to the outfield. While the throw arrived at the plate ahead of the runner, Natusch had nowhere to go with Rose standing right in the running lane three feet in front of home plate. Natusch opted to run through Rose instead of observing the high school rule stating the runner’s only option in such a situation is to slide.

“I know you have to slide when you go home, but I didn’t feel like I had enough space and I would have hurt myself in the process,” Natusch said. “I put my hands out first just trying to brace myself. I wasn’t trying to ram through him by any means. Everyone said that’s what it looked like.”

Natusch jarred the ball loose as Rose drilled him in the face with his glove hand.

“When he dropped his shoulder I had it,” Rose said. “I caught it, tried to go two hands, but he was there already, and I couldn’t get that second hand in. He hit it out, but it’s all good.”

However, home plate umpire John Bologna immediately called the play dead, signaled the runner was out, and immediately went into boxing-ref mode as tempers flared and both benches cleared — though no direct confrontations came of it.

There was already bad blood between the two teams stemming from a game last year, when El Camino manager Brian Ghilarducci got into a shouting match with a San Mateo player.

“They’re always saying how we’re the punks,” Ghilarducci said. “But you could obviously hear how they chirp, and the way they talk. So, we’re always going to get a bad rap on that just because we’re so close to San Francisco, we’re considered hoodlums. But, whatever. It is what it is.”

While San Mateo added a run later in the inning to go up 8-0, the bench-clearing incident seemed to fire up El Camino, as the Colts rallied back to take the lead, scoring six runs in the bottom of the third, one in the fourth, and two more in the bottom of the sixth.

“You’re supposed to slide,” Ghilarducci said. “It’s high school safety. That’s what they called. You’re supposed to slide, and he tried to bury my guy and he got ejected for it. Nice, it fired us up and gave us the momentum. We came back from eight runs down.”

The Colts (2-2, 6-7) tied it in the sixth when, with runners on first and third, relief pitcher Victor Angulo made an errant pickoff throw to first. It was one of nine San Mateo errors on the day, and allowed Ryan DeBono to score from third. Later in the frame, cleanup hitter Jonathan Gonzalez singled to center to score Raul Reyes to give El Camino a 9-8 lead.

“It takes not giving up,” Ghilarducci said of the comeback. “A lot of talk, a lot of fight. Keeping the energy up.”

But San Mateo answered back in the top of the seventh with an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Kevin Sanchez to score Ethan Nekota from third base.

Then in the top of top of the ninth, the Bearcats rallied for three runs to escape with a much-needed win. Aaron Wong led off the frame with a single — one of his four hits on the day — and Giancarlo Selvitella followed with a single to put runners at the corners with no outs. Sanchez then reached on an infield error but earning an RBI as Wong was already going to score the go-ahead run from third.

Then came a back-breaker, when San Mateo senior Ben Callicot knocked a two-run double off the short porch in center field to put the Bearcats up 12-9.

“I didn’t really piece it,” Callicot said. “I kind of got it off the end of the bat and it just carried all the way to the fence. It worked out great for us.”

Callicot — who started the year as San Mateo’s starting second baseman until Selvitella returned from an injury — has served predominantly as a reserve player this season. He entered Thursday’s game in the fourth inning and ultimately went 2 for 4 on the day.

“I was a little bit disappointed when I didn’t start,” Callicot said. “But when I didn’t see my name in the lineup, I didn’t get down on myself. I really tried to warm up my best and be ready if I played. And my name was called three innings into it.”

Angulo earned the win with five innings of relief work. San Mateo starting pitcher Myles Guerrero worked four innings before giving way.

San Mateo manager Neal Goldstein said he thought both his pitchers threw well.

“Both my pitchers pitched really well, I thought,” Goldstein said. “But we couldn’t play catch behind them. We made tons of errors.”

The win was a critical one for the Bearcats, who now move into a third-place tie with El Camino in the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division standings. Half Moon Bay (5-1, 9-7) is in first place, with Sacred Heart Prep (4-2, 6-10) in second place.

“Huge,” Goldstein said of the victory. “Because if we drop this, we go to 1-3 in league, and we’re two games behind them, let alone four games behind Half Moon Bay. So, winning this, now we’re in the thick of it.”