Wednesday Jul 30

Lights refuse to go out for San Mateo and Burlingame

By John Reid / Daily News Staff Writer

By city ordinance, the lights at Mountain View's McKelvey Park automatically go out at 10:20 p.m. The lights stayed on long enough for San Mateo Post 82 to clip Burlingame Post 409 8-6 in a crucial American Legion 17-and-under Area 2 Tournament game Tuesday night.

San Mateo's Matt Page struck out the final batter of the night just minutes before the place went dark, the hard-throwing left-hander earning a save. San Mateo needs to defeat Berkeley today at 4 p.m., then come back and beat Burlingame at 7 p.m. to capture the crown in what would be a winner-take-all game. Burlingame is in the catbird seat, somewhat, as it waits for either San Mateo or Berkeley, which edged Deer Valley 9-8 in 10 innings. The three extra frames in the opener caused a 40-minute delay to the start of the Burlingame-Bulldogs contest.

Once it was underway, it was obvious San Mateo's Nick Sanzeri was going to be a tough customer to solve. Sanzeri, mixing up a hard fastball and an effective breaking pitch, had a no-hitter through the first five innings while striking out nine batters. Sanzeri, however, began to tire, walking Nick Martinez and hitting Chris Blanton with a pitch to start the sixth. Down 8-0, Mitch Foley broke up the no-hitter with a single to left to load the bases.

Ryan Bender hit a fly ball to medium right field, but Martinez elected not to tag up from third base. Burlingame scored its first run of the night when Sanzeri issued a walk to Forrest Armanino. Frank Cooke's two-run double to left-center field chased Sanzeri in lieu of James Uroz, who gave up an RBI bad-hop single to Steve Brenna. Bryan Kuh and Martinez added RBI singles to cap off Burlingame's six-run frame.

Burlingame started Anthony Napoli, who pitched a 1-2-3 first inning before encountering wildness in the second inning. Napoli walked three straight hitters, though one of them - Sanzeri - journeyed around the bases on two passed balls and a wild pitch. Chad Ratcliffe's RBI single gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.

With two outs in the fifth, Page singled to the base of the center field wall. Julian Merryweather singled to right, then moved to second on the play when the relay throw missed the cutoff. Napoli proceeded to walk three more batters for two runs before giving way to Saami Phan, who also had trouble finding the strike zone. Phan walked three batters in a row to bring in three more runs for the Bulldogs.

San Mateo added an eighth run in the sixth on a double to center field by Petey Woodall, which scored Sanzeri, who tallied three runs in the game.

The winner of the tournament advances to the state tournament in Yountville.