YOUTH SPORTS: Campbell Plaza Blanked in TOC Championship

Armed with an accurate fastball and a shifty breaking ball, SC Briarwood Pirates starting pitcher Nick Garcia was nearly perfect Tuesday evening.

With Garcia locked in early during his biggest start of the year, the Campbell Plaza Majors Division Little League team’s season ended in the District 44 Tournament of Champions title game held at SC Homestead Field in Santa Clara.

SC Briarwood won the game 3-1 on a toasty summer evening in the South Bay.

Garcia never yielded a base hit, striking out 13 batters en route to a no-hitter in the title game. The lone Campbell Plaza run came in the first inning off a fielding error by SC Briarwood.

Speedy lead-off man Bennett Williams drew a walk to open the bottom half of the first and then took second base off a pitch in the dirt and third off a wild throw.

After back-to-back strikeouts, cleanup hitter David Lenci struck a hard hit roller through the legs of the SC Briarwood first baseman safely into right field.

The connection allowed Williams to dart home and give Campbell a 1-0 advantage after one.

“Their pitcher was just dialed in,” Campbell Plaza head coach Jim Mollerus said. “They scored a couple well timed runs. Unfortunately, that was the difference in the game today.”

An RBI single evened the score at one in the second, but the real damage came in the very next inning.

A lead-off walk and a pair of doubles helped SC Briarwood push two more runs across in the third, giving the visitors the insurance runs they needed during the championship game pitchers dual.

Campbell Plaza pitcher Matt Hoshiko struck out nine batters in five sturdy innings of work on the hill. The hard throwing right-hander used his heavy fastball early and often to get ahead in the count.  He finished off Pirates hitters with a nasty off-speed pitch that trailed off the far side of the dish.

“They were just sitting on his fastball,” Mollerus said about his opponents approach at the plate in the later innings. “It’s been a great ride. We’re a lot stronger of a team now than we were at the start of the season. This is pretty much the same group that was a last place team in 2010.”

Williams nearly broke up the no-no during his team’s final at-bats in the sixth. With the count full, Williams pushed the ball towards the right side of the infield but was thrown out by a hair at first base for the first out of the inning.

Campbell Plaza racked up 12 hits in Game Two of the TOCs and 14 more in Game Three. Right fielder Gio Besto made the play of the day in the field for Campbell on Tuesday.

After a hard hit liner got by the outfielder and rolled to the wall, Besto recovered quickly and threw a strike to second base to nab the runner trying for two bases.

Several Campbell Plaza team members will continue to play ball for the Campbell Majors All-Star team later on this week.