The Morgan Hill Colt Division All-Star team has made it a goal
to qualify for the Pony Baseball World Series, which takes place
next week in Lafayette, Ind.
San Jose – The Morgan Hill Colt Division All-Star team has made it a goal to qualify for the Pony Baseball World Series, which takes place next week in Lafayette, Ind.
Hosting and taking part in the West Zone Tournament at Valley Christian High is a big step in helping Morgan Hill reach that pinnacle and it opened tournament play by beating Santa Clara 4-1 in the first round Thursday.
“It’s been our goal since last year to make it to the World Series,” said Morgan Hill’s Jon Hughes, who pitched a complete-game four-hitter to beat Santa Clara. “So we plan on winning this tournament.”
Morgan Hill manager David Newton added that to earn a win against an area rival such as Santa Clara is a big boost.
“It’s really good to come out and beat Santa Clara,,” Newton said. “They’ve been a rival of ours for years.”
Morgan Hill played solid fundamental baseball from the start and got on the board early.
Billy Hill, who also plays at Sobrato High, led off the game with a single and Phillip Trappas (Valley Christian) bunted him over. Matt Cummins (Live Oak) then followed by crushing the first pitch he saw the opposite way for an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.
Morgan Hill was back at it in the second inning. Charlie McClung (Monte Vista Christian) drew a one-out walk and Danny Nelson (Sobrato) hit a two-out single. Hill followed with a four-pitch walk to load the bases and Trappas was hit by a pitch to force in a run and make it 2-0.
The defense shone for Morgan Hill to hold onto that lead in the second inning. After Hughes (Valley Christian) walked the leadoff man and gave up a single to put two on with nobody out, he induced a grounder that the shortstop Hill fielded, flipped to Trappas at second for one out and then fired on to first and got a nice scoop from Ryan Evanger (Gilroy) to complete the double play.
Hughes got the next batter, Steven Thompson, to hit a grounder to short and Evanger again came up with a terrific scoop to record the out and end the inning with a runner stranded at third.
“That was a huge momentum change,” Newton said. “We would’ve gave the runs right back.”
Morgan Hill mounted another rally in the fourth and again Hill, who fished 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, was a big part of it. He smashed a one-out double and Trappas and Cummins both walked to load the bases.
Hughes grounded out to second to drive in Hill and Trappas scored on a wild pitch to give Morgan Hill a 4-0 lead.
The only trouble Hughes ran into came in the sixth. He aggravated a cramp while running to first after smashing a single off the right field wall, but stayed in the game. Hughes said the cramp forced him to change his delivery and pitch selection by focusing more on the curve ball and the difference in his effectiveness showed.
He walked the leadoff batter Ruben Gutierrez and he advanced to second on a wild pitch. After striking out the next batter, he walked the cleanup hitter Anthony DeMarco.
A fielder’s choice put runners at the corners with two outs and Santa Clara’s lone run scored when Jacob Johanson got himself caught in a rundown between first and second long enough for Gutierrez to score to make it 4-2. But when Johanson was finally tagged out it ended the inning and Hughes set down Santa Clara in order in the seventh to get the win.
“It gave me some confidence to be able to work through the pain, work through the injury,” Hughes said.
The win put Morgan Hill in the winner’s bracket, where it advanced to face another area rival, Campbell, in the evening game Thursday.
Only the evening sky was enough to keep Morgan Hill from disposing Campbell. The game had to be stopped Thursday because of darkness, and Morgan Hill completed the job and earned a 10-7 victory Friday morning.
That win set up a matchup against Jurupa on Friday, the result of which was not available at press time. The winner of that semifinal game advanced to the championship game Sunday at noon. The loser plays today at 2pm with a second chance to advance to the finals.
Follow the brackets online at www.mhpb.org.
