SAN BRUNO — Santa Cruz High’s baseball team turned in its hottest hitting performance in its coldest game of the season, but suffered a 12-11 loss to host Capuchino in the teams’ wild, eight inning nonleague thriller Wednesday night.
The Mustangs’ Yulio Ceron reached base on a dropped fly ball in right field and scored the decisive run on Nathan Balch’s two-out, walk-off single.
The Cardinals not only scored a season-high run total, they finished with 10 hits, five of which went for extra bases. That showing helped take some of the sting off their narrow loss.
“We hit well,” said Cardinals coach Bubba Trumbull. “I’m really happy with the progression of the offense. We were on the barrel, in the gaps quite a bit tonight. But we gave up too many freebies, an error here, an error there, a missed popup, a couple of walks, and we hit three or four (batters), and they made us pay.”
When Santa Cruz arrived at the hilltop campus, located a stone’s throw away from San Francisco International Airport, it was just another chilly evening on the peninsula: 54 degrees with 16 mph winds blowing out to left field. That would explain why an ice cream truck driver made a brief stop near at the park, balring Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” on his speaker. By game’s end, the temperature dropped to 50, and the wind was still holding strong.
The chilly weather didn’t deter more than two dozen, bundled up fans from taking in the action at the Mustangs’ picturesque, new synthetic turf field — part of a two-year-old, $22 million sports facilities upgrade paid for by the San Mateo Union High School District.
Trumbull said he heard about Capuchino’s new facility, needed a game during spring break, and wanted a closer look at the venue.
“I love playing under the lights,” said Trumbull, of scheduling the night game. “I didn’t know it would be freezing cold. But, last year we went down to Fresno and played a night game and it kinda woke our bats up for some reason. And there’s a chance you’re going to have to play under the lights in CCS (Central Coast Section playoffs), and you don’t want it to be your first time.”
The game was played with playoff intensity. The lead changed hands three times over the final five innings, and both teams’ bullpens saw considerable action. Sophom*ore Cameron Fusari (three innings), junior Seth Jin (one), and seniors Michael Bogaard (one) and Triton Dew (three) pitched for the Cardinals. Senior Michael Riordan started for the Mustangs and exited after two innings, and senior William Stevens and junior Declan Mendel each threw three innings.
Santa Cruz (5-6) led 5-4 through two innings, trailed 8-6 after four, and jumped ahead 11-10 by the end of six. Kaden Smith tied the score at 10-all, after his RBI double drove in Diego Grabiel. Smith scored the go-ahead run when Fernando DaCosta reached on a fielding error at first base with two outs.
But the Mustangs’ Lucas Zayac doubled and scored on Anakin Manuel’s one out single to knot the score at 11 in the bottom of the seventh. They left the potential winning run stranded at second — their 10th runner left on base. Balch made sure that total didn’t get any bigger in the eighth.
It was another quality win for the Mustangs (11-5), who have also posted nonleague victories over two West Catholic Athletic League opponents, Junipero Serra and Saint Francis of Mountain View. It was their sixth one-run win.
“That’s a really good hitting baseball team,” said Mustangs coach Matt Wilson, of the Cardinals. “They did a great job at the plate and hit the ball hard. I was proud of my guys because every time they’d go up, we’d battle back and tie it up, and at the end we obviously got it done. Yeah, it was big for us tonight to do what we did.”
The Cardinals’ bottom third of the order had a productive outing.
Fusari had two hits and a run scored, and Emmet Desmond reached base three times without registering a hit and scored three runs. No. 9 hitter August Swanson laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to advance a pair of runners that eventually scored on Damos Deworken’s two-run triple in the second inning, walked in the fourth, and smacked a two-run double in the fifth to drive in DaCosta and Desmond.
“It was a hard-fought battle,” Desmond said. “That was by far our best offensive day — by far. We were hitting on the barrel all day, against good competition. I mean, they’re beating dub-Cal schools. That’s real competition right there.”
Smith scored twice for the Cardinals, Deworken had a pair of hits, Dew had two RBI, Dacosta had a double and two RBI, and Nick Bogomilsky hit an RBI double and scored a run.
Ryan Burton and Manuel each had two hits and three RBI to lead the Mustangs.
THE SCORE
Capuchino 12, Santa Cruz 11 (8 inn.)
Up next: Santa Cruz at Archbishop Mitty
When: Friday, noon
