San Mateo’s Landon King gets tryout with USA Baseball 12U National Team

San Mateo American nearly found itself without its young star for a good portion of the Little League All-Stars summer schedule, though, after King recently attended the USA Baseball 12U National Team Trials. The 11-year-old King was one 36 players invited to the five-day event at Thomas Brooks Park in Cary, North Carolina.

“I think it got me a lot better because I was on the field with kids that were definitely a lot better than me, and it’s good for me to know what that’s like,” King said. “It was great.”

King did not get named to the USA Baseball 12U National Team’s final roster of 18 players, including six from California, and none from Northern California. San Mateo American’s slugging middle infielder played in three intersquad games, seeing time at second base, shortstop, third base and the outfield, and pitched in one game.

The USA Baseball tryouts from June 27 to July 1 forced King to miss two games in the District 52 tournament, which ran concurrently from June 25 to July 5. Had King been selected to the 12U National Team, he might have been required to miss more games with San Mateo American, as the 2022 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, held July 27 to Aug. 7 in Tainan, Taiwan.

Both of the proceeding two rounds of the Little League All-Stars schedule — the Nor Cal All-Star Tournament and the West Zone Regional Tournament — overlap with the U-12 World Cup tourney.

“If we’re around that long, obviously he will have helped us to get there,” San Mateo American manager Paul Witten said. “Then it would have been a question of: What would he have done? … I think we all would have respected whatever the decision was, but I’m glad we’re not in that position now.”

San Mateo American already got a taste of life without King, when he missed the team’s first two elimination games — a 14-1 win June 28 over Half Moon Bay, followed by a grueling 11-10 win July 1 over Alpine. Had King been on the active roster, he would have pitched against Alpine.

“Of all the teams we played, that was the best hitting team we played,” Witten said. “That game was a grind. That was a tough game. So, he was missed. His bat was missed.”

But King was on the opposite side of the country, having flown to Cary, North Carolina on July 26, the day after San Mateo American’s 5-4 loss to Hillsborough in the opening game of the District 52 tournament.

“He had some guilt because he was leaving us and he really wanted to put us in a good position,” Witten said. “So, I promised him we will be here when we got back.”

The road to the 12U National Team Trials was a long one for King. It started last year when he went through several local tryouts, including the Northwest region selection

Trials in Stockton. He was one of 36 players from the Northwest region, and among approximately 200 across the nation, during that selection process in August 2021.

King got his first glimpse of how much his 12U constituents had grown on the flight to North Carolina, when Anthony Frausto — a 5-6 left-handed pitcher from New Braunfels, Texas — boarded his airplane. King’s height lists at 5-4, and he was immediately in awe of the big lefty. It was a sign of things to come.

“Everyone at the USA thing, they were really big and super, super tall and really strong,” King said. “And we’ve never really seen people like that when we play for the [Federals]. … I felt like the smallest I’ve felt while playing. I don’t know I just felt really short. ... I was only taller than like one or two people.”

Even with San Mateo American, King is one of the youngest. Of the 13 players on American’s roster, only DJ Ruiz is younger.

When King hit the field at Thomas Brooks Park, his first at-bat was against Frausto. He flew out to center field. While he went just 1 for 10 through three games, King continued to put the ball into play at a steady clip. He struck out just once on a called third strike. In the field, he turned two double plays, including the pivot at second base on a 6-4-3 twin killing.

On the mound, King worked one inning in his only appearance, surrendering a run while striking out the side.

“It wasn’t as nerve-wracking because I knew that it would be really, really hard,” King said. “I knew I was just trying to have fun and just trying to make the team by having fun the whole time.”

The selection announcement for the team’s final roster was held July 1.

“I was pretty disappointed,” King said of not being selected. “But I know when Mike Trout was 12, he didn’t make the team either. That’s why I wasn’t super disappointed because that’s not the last time I’ll ever play baseball.”

King flew home and returned in time for San Mateo American’s July 2 game against San Carlos, an 8-1 win. It was the third of American’s seven straight wins through the elimination bracket to win the tourney, including back-to-back wins over Hillsborough in the championship round.

“The kids embraced him with big bear hugs they were so happy to see him, and I think that just relaxed them,” Witten said.

Now, King will settle in for the long haul with San Mateo American. The team opens play in the four-team Section 3 tournament Saturday morning at Five Canyons Park in Castro Valley.

“Of course, everyone wants to make the Little League World Series,” King said. “I don’t know how far we can go but I know we can go pretty far. But we just have to keep working and just keep playing our game.”