Matt Kuromoto pitched a complete game Wednesday for Woodbridge. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Woodbridge High School senior Matt Kuromoto was in command again Wednesday.
Kuromoto pitched his second shutout of the season to help the Warriors defeat University 4-0 at Ryan Lemmon Stadium. Woodbridge (7-2, 5-1) remains atop the PCL standings ahead of Northwood (5-2, 4-1). Northwood beat Beckman 8-5 on Wednesday. Kuromoto has shutout University twice this season.
Kuromoto (3-1) lowered his ERA to 0.56 and his teammates helped him by jumping out to a 3-0 lead after two innings. He allowed three hits with eight strikeouts and struck out the side in the fifth inning.
“When Matt is throwing strikes, he’s pretty efficient and tough to hit,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. “We’re pretty lucky that we have him to start every other game for us.
“But I like the way we executed. Offensively, we did some good things. Uni can pitch and they play defense and they’re well coached, so it was a good win for us. We’re not quite as offensive as we have in the past, so we have to get bunts down.”
Kuromoto said he was pleased with how his teammates responded.
“We started off good, we got execution down early and started hitting good,” Kuromoto said. “Defensively, they were making plays behind me. We played overall solid. I would say this is probably my second best today, I didn’t have my best stuff, I was just attacking the zone, that’s what I always do.”
In the bottom of the first inning, Brandon Abernathy singled and scored on an RBI triple by Jake Amundson off starting pitcher Austen Barnett. Catcher Anthony DeMarco stole second and came home on a squeeze bunt by Jake Perez.
The Warriors added another run in the second inning. Trevor Star tripled and came home on a wild pitch. Woodbridge made it 4-0 in the sixth inning. Demarco singled and came around to score on a single by Nolan Stottlemeyer.
University (5-2-1, 2-2-1) had a few chances to break the shutout, but stranded two runners in the fourth and sixth innings.
“We had opportunities and obviously our opponent capitalized on the limited opportunities we gave them,” said Uni’s first year coach Wesley Shaw. “That’s just baseball, they’re a well coached team, as well as we are I think but the ball just didn’t bounce our way. We faced a very quality pitcher who kept us unbalanced.
“The unfortunate part is our guys didn’t make the adjustment as they should of. We’re happy to the effect that we didn’t give up, we fought until the end, but it’s all about execution. It’s been a learning experience, it’s been really positive, it’s my first year here and I’m really impressed the baseball IQ these kids have. It’s just trying to coordinate the physical aspects with the mental aspects.”
Barnett pitched the first five innings for University before being relieved by Logan Rome in the sixth inning. Luke Weston, Cooper Berger and Charles Lee had the hits for University.
The two teams play again Thursday at University.
Woodbridge has played one more game than the rest of the teams in the league because Sage Hill cannot play during spring break, Brucker said.
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—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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