SAN JOSE — Santa Cruz High pitcher Morgan Toohey turned in a big-league performance on the home turf of one of the San Francisco Giants’ minor-league affiliates Thursday.
Sadly for the Cardinals and their supportive fans, the junior right-hander’s brilliant outing wasn’t enough to carry No. 2 seed Santa Cruz past equally stingy No. 1 Capuchino of San Bruno.
Lucas Zayac scored an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Mustangs slipped past the Cardinals 1-0 to win the Central Coast Section Division V Championship at Excite Ballpark, home of the Single-A San Jose Giants.
“Toohey was awesome,” said Bubba Trumbull, the Cardinals’ head coach. “He did everything he needed to do to get a win today. He deserved to get a win today. We just couldn’t find a way to score many runs.”
The contest was a far cry, offensively, from the teams’ nonleague meeting on April 3 — won by the Mustangs 12-11 on a walk-off hit in the eight inning — but equally suspenseful.
“I definitely came into thinking we were going to hit, like we’ve been doing. We’ve been hitting pretty good,” Toohey said. “And from what we saw when we played them the first time, they can swing it, as well. It was kinda surprising to see neither team really hit too well.”
The Mustangs’ reserves streamed from their dugout and met their teammates at the pitcher’s mound to celebrate their first title in school history, as well as senior right-handed pitcher Ryan Burton, who hurled a complete-game shutout.
The Cardinals, who beat champion Aptos in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League finale on May 10 to secure their berth into the playoffs, held their heads high and tipped their caps to their fans. They reached a section final for the first time since 2011. They were attempting to win their first CCS title since ’03.
“Everyone believed,” Toohey said. “Our energy was good. Just unfortunate that their guy made great pitches and their defense was clean. And we didn’t really make a good adjustment to his pitches.”
Burton allowed just five batters to reach base; three with hits, and none of them were able to get into scoring position.
The Cardinals’ Triton Dew had a one-out single in the first inning, and was hit by a pitch to lead off the fourth. Damos Deworken hit a leadoff single in the sixth but was thrown out attempting to steal second base with one out, and Fernando DaCosta singled to lead off the seventh, but was forced out at second base, allowing Cameron Fusari to reach on a fielder’s choice.
Kaden Smith missed an extra-base hit by a foot in the second inning. He popped out later in his at-bat. In all, the Cardinals made 14 of their 21 outs in the air: five pop outs, seven fly outs, and two line outs to shallow centerfield.
“We just weren’t on the barrel today,” Trumbull said. “There were a couple of mental breaks for us that led giving away outs. … We were in the air too much. It’s not a park you come to hit home runs in. You want to try and get line drives to the gaps. Way too many balls in the air. Those are quiet outs; we don’t like that.”
Toohey, who stepped foot in Excite Ballpark for the first time, and toed the same rubber as former Giants’ World Series winners Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, and Sergio Romo, was equally dominant. He threw a total of 64 pitches over six innings and gave up five hits. He retired the first batter in each of the first five innings, helping him minimize the Mustangs’ few scoring threats.
The Mustangs had a runner in scoring position in the second and fourth innings, and in both frames, Toohey induced a groundout to end the inning.
Scoreless entering the bottom of the sixth, Mustangs coach Matt Wilson challenged his players.
“Who wants to be the guy?” he asked. “You gotta want to be the guy.”
His players responded, with a little help. Zayac hit a leadoff single to left field, and Burton followed with a line drive that hit Toohey, drawing a gasp from the crowd. Toohey got his glove in front of his ribs, and nearly recorded the out, but the ball hit off the palm of his glove hand and deflected behind the pitcher’s mound. Toohey made a made dash for the ball, fielded it, and made a diving toss to second base as he landed on his chest. The ball was ahead of Zayac as he slid into second, but it was dropped by the second baseman.
Anakin Manuel followed with an RBI single to right field. Zayac slid safely across home in a play at the plate, which allowed Burton to move to third base.
“On contact, I saw that’s getting down, and I started booking it,” Zayac said. “I think I ran the fastest I’ve ever ran in my life to score that run.”
Michael Riordan, the next batter, reached on a fielder’s choice, as Cardinals third baseman Emmet Desmond fielded a ground ball and threw out Burton trying to score. Toohey induced a double-play ball to Deworken at shortstop, and the Cardinals escaped further damage, and gave themselves a chance in their final at-bat.
Burton was up to task, though. Despite allowing Fusari to reach on a one-out single, Burton got through the seventh on 11 pitches. He threw 71 pitches total.
For obvious reasons, Burton said it was the game of his life.
“The stage, everything, complete-game shutout … for sure,” he said. “Definitely.”
Burton said he and the Mustangs played inspired after losing 3-0 to Hillsdale in the 2023 CCS D-V title game. Now, they’re heading to the CIF NorCal Regional Playoffs.
“We wanted it bad and we got it,” he said, before giving kudos to the Cardinals for their effort.
Trumbull hopes his Cardinals carry the same fire to improve this offseason. Though he graduates five senior starters, he returns his entire starting rotation — Toohey, Jason Graff and Owen Rogers — as well as several other starters, including Deworken, DaCosta, August Swanson, and Fusari.
“It’s a comeback year again here,” Trumbull said. “That’s our goal.”
THE SCORE
Capuchino 1, Santa Cruz 0
End of season