Fourteen Hits Lead San Mateo Sister City over Toyonaka West

The San Mateo Sister City All-Star Baseball Team's bats clearly had been jet-lagged the past two games and picked a perfect time to break out!  San Mateo exploded for five runs in the first and another four in the second on their way to a 9-0, two-hit victory over the Toyonaka West All-Star team. With the win, San Mateo's record moves to 2-1.

Alika Woon got the bats going in the first with a leadoff triple. He would score on a one-out triple to right by Pablo Ossio. Ossio would score one batter later on a right-center triple by Jake Willerup. Willerup would not stay at thuird long as he was driven home on a single by Will Bonini. Joe Tongamoa walked and Iris Nai walked to load the bases. Noah Frandsen's opposite-field double plated Bonini and Tongamoa for San Mateo's fifth and final run of the inning.

The second inning started in a similar fashion, only this time, Woon added 10 more feet for a homerun. With one out, Ossio singled to start up a new rally. Willerup tripled again to drive home Ossio and quickly scored himself when Bonini doubled to right center. Bonini scored the game's final run on an error by the short stop.

Willerup started on the hill for San Mateo. He pitched four strong innings, allowing a lone infield single in the third while striking out four and walking two. Jacob Kalaveras tossed the final two frames. He also allowed only one hit while striking out four and walking one.

San Mateo has a re-match later today as part of a double header vs. the Toyonaka East where they look to avenge yesterday's, 9-3, loss


                     1  2  3  4  5  6    R  H   E
Toyo West    0  0  0  0  0  0    0   2   1
SMSCA        5  4  0  0  0  X    9  14  0

1B: Guidino Jr. (1), Ossio (1), Bonini (1), Kaufman (1), Rau (1), Nai (2)
2B: Bonini (1), Frandsen (1)
3B: Woon (1), Ossio (1), Willerup (2)
HR: Woon (1)
RBI: Woon (1), Ossio (1), Willerup (2), Bonini (2), Frandsen (2)
Pitchers: Willerup, Kalaveras (5)
W: Willerup (1-0)

Miscues and Big Innings Down San Mateo In Game 2 of Best of 5

The Toyonaka East All-Star team took advantage of the San Mateo Sister City All-Star Baseball Team's errors and added timely hits to beat San Mateo, 9-3, in game two of the five-game exhibition series. San Mateo's record moves to 1-1.

San Mateo tried to jump ahead in the first. With two outs, Jake Willerup and Nolan Rau both singled, but a a fly ball to deep center ended the threat.

Noah Frandsen tripled to right with two outs in the second, but the threat would stall there after a San Mateo strikeout.

Toyonaka exploded with five runs on only three hits in the third to take the lead and never look back. Two errors and two wild pitches aided in the third inning rally.

The lead would grow in the fourth when Toyonaka East added a single run to go ahead, 6-0.

Center fielder, Taylor Kaufman, hit an inside the park home run to right center to put San Mateo on the board in the bottom half of the fourth. Toyonaka now led, 6-1.

Unfortunately, Toyonaka East was not done scoring. They plated three more runs in the fifth to take their largest lead of the day, 9-1.

San Mateo mounted a minor comeback in the fifth. Jack Novello lead off the inning with single and moved to second when Dylan Carion reached base on a one-out error by the second baseman. Iris followed suit with a single of her own to lead the bases. After another San Mateo out, Kaufman drilled a line-drive up the middle, bringing home Novello and Carion. Unfortunately, the scoring threat would end there.

Will Bonini started on the mound for San Mateo. He pitched much better then the score would show. Only one of the five runs he allowed were earned. Cynthia Leong tossed the next two innings. She allowed four runs while striking out one. Ryan Ivers came in to pitch the final frame without allowing any hits.

San Mateo continues the series tomorrow with a double header starting at 10 AM locale time vs Toyonaka West in game one followed by a re-match in game two vs the Toyonaka East squad.


                    1  2  3  5  4  6    R  H   E
Toyo East    0  0  5  1  3  0    9   7   1
SMSCA        0  0  0  1  2  0    3  10  2

1B: Nai (1), Willerup (1), Kaufman (1), Ossio (1), Harte (1), Novello (1), Rau (2)
3B: Frandsen (1)
HR: Kaufman (1)
RBI: Kaufman (3)
Pitchers: Bonini, Leong (4), Ivers (6)
L: Bonini (0-1)

San Mateo Brings the Heat to Toyonaka

Five errors leading to four unearned runs would not deter San Mateo Sister City’s four runs in the third and three runs in the fifth to pushed the San Mateo Sister City Association (SMSCA) All-Star team to an opening game 7-4 victory over the Toyonaka West All-Star team.

Toyonaka West jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first with a pair of unearned runs. The lead would hold until third when the SMSCA would turn that 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead.

With one out, Gabriel Guidino Jr, and Ryan Ivers each singled and a walk by Cynthia Leong loaded the bases. Jake Willerup hit into a fielder’s choice that left the bases loaded. On a 0-2 pitch, Nolan Rau drove a ball to the right-center field fence for a bases-clearing triple to take a 3-2 lead. Pablo Ossio followed with an infield single, bringing home Rau to go ahead 4-2.

The San Mateo lead would only hold until the bottom of the fourth when Toyonaka West evened the score with another two unearned runs.

The score would remain tied until San Mateo plated three unanswered runs in the fifth. With one out, Zack Harte drew a walk and moved to second on a Joe Tongamao single. A Will Bonini triple to right-center, drove in both Harte and Tongamoa. Bonini would score one batter later on an Iris Nai fielder’s choice to give San Mateo’s seventh and final run of night.

That is where the score would remain, 7-4, as the game ended after a 90-minute time limit. Ryan Harvey earned the win, tossing four innings, 3-hit ball while not allowing an earned run and striking out one and walking none. Noah Frandsen earned the save. He struck out the side while only allowing a single walk in the fifth.

San Mateo gets back on the field tomorrow, August 15th when they square off against the Toyonaka East All-Star Team at 10 AM.

1  2 3 5 4 6 R  H   E
SMSCA 0 0 4 0 2 x 7  11  5
Toyo West 2 0 0 2 0 x    4  3   1

1B: Ivers (2), Tongamao (1), Ossio (1), Kaufman (1), Auyeung (1), Guidino Jr. (1), Woon (1)
2B: Harvey (1)
3B: Rau (1), Bonini (1)
RBI: Rau (3), Ossio (1), Bonini, (2), Nai, (1)
W: Harvey (1-0) S: Frandsen (1)

Hajimemashite

Departing our ryokan, our group had more sights to see prior to meeting our new families in Toyonaka. We awoke to pouring rain, but by the time we boarded our bus, drove through a nearly 10 mile-long tunnel through the mountains to Lake Ashi, the rain had stopped and provided us the mildest weather of the trip thus far.

Our first stop upon arriving at Lake Ashi, we walked around the Hakone Shrine. Torri Gate. Also at the site of the shrine are 300 year-old cedar trees and beautiful mossy grounds that Californians rarely experience. As with all shrines we’ve been to thus far, there’s a place to buy a fortune and if it’s not as desirable, you can tie the fortune to a tree to leave that “fortune” behind. Will purchased a fortune that went something like this, “blah, blah, blah, you will have no girlfriends.” Will immediately interrupted the translation right then and said, “Where do I tie this one off!?”

Educational Fact #1; you can tell that it’s a shrine by the site of the orange,

From there, we made our way down to the lake and boarded a pirate-ship-like boat for a brief cruise to the other side of the lake. The kids seemed to enjoy the ride almost as much as the oreo cookies they realized were sold at the snack bar aboard the ship.

Back at the bus, we made our way to the Shinkansen station (aka bullet train) for a two-hour ride to Toyonaka. Once we got to Toyanaka, we knew we were home…especially given the sign that said “Welcome Home San Mateo!”

Right then and there, things got REAL for our team!  It was interesting to hear the tone of the conversations change from the bullet train to the bus ride to the Toyonaka Recreation Center. The confident jibber jabber changed to just nervous jibber as each player realized that they were about to meat their new family for the next week. It was like a middle-school dance our kids staring nervously at who their host family is and the host families wondering who was about to infiltrate their homes!

The hours of practicing introductions in Japanese paid off. Each player NIALED their intros when they met their host families.

And then they were off…

Game one is scheduled for 5 PM locale time on Friday, August 14^th. Tune in to GameChanger for game updates.

The other Pacific

OK…so on the last post, I said that we were headed for Hakone...which is kinda’ accurate only that is where we ended the day. To get to Hakone, let’s first talk about the journey.



Departing Tokyo, we boarded the bus for Kamakura, the former capital of Japan over 1000 years ago, where we made our first stop, a Shinto shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu . Here, we saw white pigeons eating from people’s hands, turtles comingling with koi, beetles five inches long, and listened to countless cicada songs…all before we experienced the shrine itself. On the way up to the shrine, Coach John challenged a number of the kids in a race to the top and dominated the entire way. The shrine was cool too!



From there, we took a quick bus ride to The Great Buddha in Kamakura. The Buddha is made of bronze and is hollow out to allow patrons to enter the center. As if it could not be any hotter, the inside of the Buddha might be 20 degrees hotter. Aside from the heat, it was definitely a cool experience.

The last stop in the Hakone region included a stop at the Hasedera Temple. The top of the temple area gave us our first view of the other side of the Pacific; and an amazing coastal breeze!




Finally, as stated in the intro, after a longer, coastal, bus ride featuring some AMAZING conversations from the back of the bus, we ended in Hakone. Our accommodations for the night is a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. At check-in, we were all given yukadas to wear while here, which gives us all an even greater experience!
It’s now 8:45 PM locale time and we’re all beat. Tomorrow we’ll start the journey to meet our host families in Toyonaka. Until then, Oyasuminasai!

Longest...Day...EVER

We physically made it safe and sound to Japan! Mentally, physically and emotionally, I am not sure we were all there!

Departing SFO at 1:55 AM for an 11-hour flight with a team of 19 11 and 12 year olds is a recipe for disaster. What I can say, it was anything BUT that! By the end of the flight, one of the flight attendants handed one of our chaperones a hand written note thanking our group for being so well behaved and even gave us some treat for the road!

After landing in Tokyo, clearing customs and getting our bags, we boarded a bus for a days worth of sight seeing…mind you, it was 5:30 AM and the constant time-checks were endless!

From the airport, we headed for the famous fish market where we roamed the narrow roads to see all of the interesting street merchants who were selling the catch of the day! And now…it’s 7:15 AM and we were off to the Tokyo Sky Tree for some of the best views of ALL of Tokyo from over 600 meters in the air.

“Are we gonna eat soon?” “When’s lunch”? “I’m hungry!”

Well kids, when it’s only 10 AM, it’s hard to eat lunch. Instead, let’s see more of sights! So, off we went to Senso-Ji temple. There, experienced our first traditional temple including hand washing, incense-burning…SELFIES! In case you were wondering, the selfie stick is alive and well here in Japan!

11 AM, and it’s finally lunch time. The team tore through a delicious bento box of tempura, rice, vegies and chicken. I won’t say whom, but lunch also included an impressive food challenge, the first of potentially many of the trip!

The last stop before our check-in at the hotel was to the famous Shibuya crossing where the team broke up into small groups to join the organized chaos of…well…crossing the street!

OK…OK…NOW WE CAN CHECK IN!

Not wanting anyone to have a chance of falling asleep, we gave the group a mere 45 minutes after check in at the Metropolitan Hotel to freshen up before we were off again, this time to the Tokyo Dome for the Yomiuri Giants game vs. the DeNA Baystars. You would think that sitting in the bleachers with constant singing would keep our team awake…well, think again! By the 3rd inning, one could easily look down the isle to see heads down or nodding off to sleepy town. Most of us went back to the hotel, as enough was enough! We’d made it to 8 PM! BTW, Giants won 2-1!

Today, we are off to Hakone for more sights, including Mt. Fuji!

Sister city bond stays strong: San Mateo high, middle school students to visit Japan - - San Mateo Daily Journal

Sister city bond stays strong: San Mateo high, middle school students to visit Japan - - San Mateo Daily Journal