Mateo lefty Jack Warren delivers first career shutout

Warren has long been synonymous with potent offense. In his first season as a starting rotation staple, though, the third-year varsity junior fired his first career shutout and San Mateo (2-4 PAL Ocean, 6-9 overall) rallied for two runs in its final at-bat for a 2-0 win Thursday at Half Moon Bay.

“I think overall, when I look at the season in general, I think it’s gone pretty well,” Warren said. “The times when I get in trouble is when I don’t hit my spots, because I’m not a high-velocity guy.”

The southpaw pitched to contact, holding HMB (2-3-1, 10-7-1) to six hits while walking two and striking out three. He pitched out of the stretch in nearly every inning, but breezed through the final inning, retiring the Cougars in order to finish the day with 102 total pitches.

“It was a nice 1-2-3 inning, which is rare,” Bearcats manager Neal Goldstein said. “He’s always got to sweat it out.”

Goldstein warmed up his closer Kilmer Sanchez prior to the seventh inning just in case Warren ran into trouble. He didn’t. The inning started with a comebacker, he then got a hard hit fly out to left fielder Jorge Chavarin and ended it with a groundout to third baseman Jacob Selph.

“I felt really good,” Warren said. “Knowing it was most likely the last inning, if we win or lose here … I had that extra boost of energy. That kind of helped me. But also knowing if not, I had Kilmer there. And Kilmer is really good on the mound too.”

Even though Sanchez didn’t pitch in the game, his arm still loomed large in the outcome. In the fifth inning amid a scoreless tie, HMB set the table with runners at the corners and no outs. A shallow fly ball followed, with Sanchez in right field charging in to make the catch and fire on a fly to the plate to catcher Sean Tanap to nail the runner trying to tag up from third.

“He’s just got an absolute cannon,” Warren said. “I feel like that was the turning point. … Right there they had a lot of momentum but as soon as he threw that guy out, there was a momentum shift. So, yeah, it was great.”

With the score remaining deadlocked into the seventh inning, Warren got things going with the bat as well. He opened the final frame with a single. Then Tanap broke through with an RBI triple to score courtesy runner Murphy Dailey. Chavarin later followed with an RBI single through the middle to score courtesy runner Yuki Mori.

Warren has long been a weapon with the bat. He was promoted to the varsity team as a freshman to hit and has really flourished this season. He is currently one RBI shy of leading the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division in each of the triple crown categories, according to MaxPreps.com. His .511 batting average and three home runs each lead the league, while his 12 RBIs leave him one shy of league leader Jordan Anagnosou of Woodside.

“He’s always been a good hitter,” Goldstein said. “Even as a freshman he hit the ball. … He’s a good player. He’s getting some looks. He’ll probably play at the next level.”

Prior to this season, Warren had totaled 10 varsity pitching appearances, including four starts. He recorded a 2-1 record as a sophomore in 2017 with his first career complete game, allowing one unearned run in an 8-1 non-league win over Del Mar-San Jose.

After opening this season with a 3-1 record, Warren dropped four straight decisions, with the Bearcats defense totaling 10 errors through those four games.

“We’ve made more errors than we’d like,” Goldstein said. “He’s had some bad luck behind him.”

The 6-1, 185-pound Warren added approximately 20 pounds in the offseason. He also put a focus on pitching, but the focus has helped him twofold, he said.

“It’s been really important because coming into the season I knew I was going to pitch a lot more,” Warren said. “I definitely spent a lot more time this year just pitching — pitching in practice, pitching bullpens, working on pitches. And I also think that pitching has helped my hitting.”