The Santa Clara Westside 12U All Stars beat the heat Thursday afternoon by beating Moreland in quick fashion. Westside needed only four innings to win via a 10-run rule, which, given the fact this level has a pitch limit for pitchers, is certainly an additional value to any victory. Westside didn’t have to have any of their pitchers cover the final two innings of a full six-inning game.
“The goal was to get it done as quickly as possible to save arms even more,” acknowledged Westside Head Coach Kenny Dame. “That’s exactly what we wanted to do.”
Dame utilized two pitchers for two innings each in the victory rather than have a traditional starter pitch deep into the game. If pitchers keep their pitch count below 35 pitches, then they only are required one day of rest under the pitch count rules to pitch again. Carter Nabhan started on the mound and threw the first two innings, whilst Chris Cardin came in for the third and fourth.
“Carter pitches really well for us,” chimed Cardin on his fellow flamethrower. “He’s also a great all-around player, he’s fast and quick out of the box.”
Nabhan certainly isn’t unfamiliar with getting high praise from his teammates. Not only does he star as a pitcher, but as a speedy leadoff hitter, a catalyst at the top of the lineup.
In the third inning, Nabhan smoked a two-RBI single through the 5.5 hole to extend Westside’s lead to 4-0 and took advantage of a poor defense to wind up all the way at third base.
“When I rounded first, I saw that they overthrew it, so I went to second,” noted Nabhan. “And then nobody was covering third, so I went to third.”
“His speed kills,” beamed Dame on his leadoff hitter. “I’ve had the privilege of coaching him for a while now, his manager for the regular season and also All Stars and travel ball. His speed absolutely kills and is a menace for the opposing defense.”
Nabhan wasn’t the only heads up base runner for Westside in this one. Mateo Patoja-Lopez also came around to score from second on a ball that never left the infield.
Furthermore, Westside got key contributions from the lower part of their lineup. Jacob Hanna-Weir picked up a key left-on-left single, and Lucas Maksim was arguably the offensive star of the game with his two hits from the No. 9 spot in the lineup.
“It’s a lot of fun. I like it a lot,” remarked Nabhan when asked how fun it is when his All Star team has strong hitters up and down the lineup. “Normally, only the top of the lineup is good, but it’s a lot more fun when every single one of us in the lineup is a good hitter.”
“With the bats, we took twelve twelve-year-olds that we knew they could hit,” added Dame on his roster construction. “The three that might not be in the field as much as the others, they made it with their bats.”
“It is the same with our pitching; we used two guys today,” continued Dame. “The plan was to keep everybody under 35 [pitches] so we could have everyone available moving forward. We have seven, eight, nine kids who can pitch for us. There was no concern about underthrowing somebody because we had arms in the pen ready to go.“
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