On a beautiful day in San Mateo and in front of a large, energetic crowd , the San Mateo Sister City All-Star Baseball Team fell to the Toyonaka All-Stars 6-4 this evening at Trinta Park. The win gives the boys from Japan a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five cultural exchange series.
San Mateo jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first. Brad Kullberg singled on a sharp ground ball past the second baseman. Tristan Dewing then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving Kullberg to second. Jack Hagerman brought home Kullberg one batter later on another hard-hit single past the second baseman.
San Mateo extended the lead in the third. With one out, Kullberg drove a ball to deep center for a double and later stole third. With two outs, Hagerman tallied his second RBI of the night with a line-drive single to left, giving San Mateo a 2-0 lead.
One inning later, Tomura Haruya put Toyonaka on the board with a solo home run over the left-center field fence. Ryota Kawauchi followed with a single to right and came around to score three batters later on a fielder's choice to tie the score at 2-2.
San Mateo would bounce back in their half of the fourth with two more runs to take a 4-2 lead. Nicholas Elu led off the inning with a single to right and walked home after a bases loaded base-on-balls later in the inning. With one out in the inning and the bases still loaded, Sancho Llamas singled to center field, driving home Sean Heffernan, who also walked earlier in the inning. On the play, Gianluca Caltagirone was thrown out at the plate for the second out of the inning.
The scoring would end there for San Mateo.
Three runs in the fifth and a single run in the sixth for Toyonaka would prove too much to overcome for San Mateo.
Jarrett Nelson started on the hill the Sister City All-Stars and went four strong innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits while striking out five with only one free pass. He would get a no decision.
Haruya went the distance for Toyonaka, earning the win while allowing four earned runs on seven hits while striking out 10. Haruya also led the Toyonaka offense with two hits and two runs scored.
In addition to Kullberg and Hagerman's two hits and Elu and Llamas' single hits, Luke Bottari added a single in the fifth but was stranded at first.
The series resumes tomorrow evening with a first pitch scheduled for 5 PM at Martens Field.
1 2 3 4 5 6 H R E
Toyonaka 0 0 0 2 3 1 6 6 1
San Mateo 1 0 1 2 0 0 4 7 3
WP: Haruya (1-0)
LP: Llamas (0-1)
great game, great recap and I can't wait to see tonight's event!
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