Jul 20, 2008

Burlingame bats come alive in rout

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

On Friday, San Carlos manager Rich Vallero called Burlingame the most dangerous team in the Area 2 American Legion Tournament. Saturday morning, his team found out just how dangerous.

Aided by 11 walks and two errors, Burlingame exploded for 14 hits and 15 runs, taking Game 1 of the tournament from San Carlos 15-9 at Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto.
"They came out mentally prepared," Burlingame manager Eric Nuss said. "We were chasing two after the first inning, but they didn't put pressure on themselves, they just let it flow out there."

Burlingame showed a little bit of everything - patience, power and finesse. The offensive surge was much-needed medicine for a team that had been struggling at the dish.

They were down early to San Carlos, which strung together three singles to lead off the game. The third, a fister over the glove of a leaping Andrew Suvvunnacheun at third, drove in the game's first run. The second run scored on a fielder's choice.

Burlingame's answer to the two-run deficit was loud, and it happened in the third inning, when they sent 12 to the plate and six collected RBIs.

San Carlos starter Brad Sentman struggled with his control. After giving up back-to-back singles to start the frame, walked the next three batters, giving him seven walks in three-plus innings. After a Matt Cochrane walk brought in a run, Vallero had seen enough and sent in reliever Jordan Sanvictores.

The move didn't help much. By the time the frame ended, Burlingame had a 7-2 lead.
Burlingame was back at it in the top of the fourth, this time scoring four runs on four hits, all with two outs. Matt Feldman's three-run triple was the crippling blow. It was his third hit of the afternoon, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

"Matt will tell you that he's been struggling a bit," Nuss said. "But he came up to me today before the game and said 'I'm going to have a big day today, coach, I'm seeing the ball well.' "

Feldman finished his afternoon 4-for-5, a home run short of the cycle.

"I should've been on that last fastball," Feldman said of his last at-bat, a strikeout. "We had a groove today. Everyone came out swinging the bats. We should do well in this tournament."

Despite the deficit, San Carlos would not go away. Down by as many as eight, the Tribe persevered. Michael Ching's home run in the bottom of the eighth sparked a four-run rally that made it 14-9.

But the grave San Carlos dug for itself was too deep, and Burlingame's Steven Riddle added more dirt with a bomb to right-center field.

"At this point in the season, you can't play like that and expect to win," Vallero said. "How many did we walk? 11? You can't give the game away like that."